Effectiveness evaluation of alternative sanitizers in microbiological quality of strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch Var. Oso Grande) after artificial contamination by Escherichia coli

• Autor(a) principal: BASTOS,Renan Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: OLIVER,Josidel Conceição, GERMANO,Jaqueline de Lima, FERNANDES,Gislene Regina, VEIGA,Sandra Maria Oliveira Morais
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Food Science and Technology (Campinas)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-20612019000600470
• topic: sanitization; strawberries; citric acid; ultrasound; ozone

Abstract Washing and sanitization are considered particularly critical steps for the microbiological quality of fruits. At this stage, it is important to select the sanitizer which must have microbiological effectiveness. In the literature, there is a great interest on alternative sanitizers for microbiological quality control of food. This study aimed at verifying the effectiveness of sodium hypochlorite, ozone, ultrasound and citric acid as well as associations of ultrasound to the other techniques mentioned above in the microbiological quality control of strawberries cv. Oso Grande. In these trials, the fruits were initially subjected to artificial contamination by a strain of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and thereafter part of them was reserved as control samples; the remainder was submitted to different kinds of sanitization treatment. Then, some microbiological analyses of coliforms counts at 45 °C were performed with those present in the control samples and in the post-sanitization samples, through the enzymatic technique of chromogenic substrate. The three most efficient treatments for maintaining the microbiological quality of the fruit were 2% citric acid, 2% citric acid associated with ultrasound and ozone.