Strategies to reduce microbial risk and improve quality of fresh and processed strawberries: A review

Abstract

Strawberries are one of the most important fruits in the Mediterranean diet and have been widely investigated for their nutritional and nutraceutical properties. Concern about the safety of fresh and processed strawberries has increased in recent years due to the emergence of several outbreaks of foodborne pathogens linked to their consumption. The use of chlorine as a disinfectant has been identified as a concern due to public health issues and limited efficacy at removing contamination, and preventing cross-contamination. This has led to the development of novel alternatives to chlorine disinfection and thermal treatments, which include, among others, the use of organic acids, high pressure processing, intense pulsed light, or pulsed electric fields. These technologies do not generally affect the nutritional and organoleptic properties of the product and some of these have been reported to stimulate the production of valuable compounds in strawberries and to improve their overall quality.