Effects of aqueous ozone treatments on microbial load reduction and shelf life extension of fresh‐cut apple

Abstract

SummaryAqueous ozone was first used to take the place of chlorine as fresh‐cut apples sanitiser. Aqueous ozone (1.4 mg L−1) treatments were evaluated for their effectiveness on microbial growth, quality attributes and shelf life of fresh‐cut apples. The results indicated that aqueous ozone treatments for 5 and 10 min achieved accepted microbial quality and, respectively, reduced total bacteria counts by 1.83 and 2.13 log10CFU g−1 compared with the control samples on the 12th day. The ethylene production, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities, and total phenol and malondialdehyde contents were reduced by aqueous ozone treatments. In addition, this sanitiser also delayed the quality deterioration of fresh‐cut apples and enhanced their antioxidant capacity. Therefore, it was recommended to sanitise fresh‐cut apples with aqueous ozone (1.4 mg L−1) for 5 min, which applied to industrial production requirement for both efficiency and costs and could extend the shelf life up to 10 days.