Quantifying the effectiveness of washing treatments on the microbial quality of fresh-cut romaine lettuce and cantaloupe
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Basri Omac; Rosana G. Moreira; Mustafa Guzel; M. Elena Castell-Perez
- Source
- LWT. 86:270-276
- Subject
- 0301 basic medicine
education.field_of_study
030106 microbiology
Population
Biology
medicine.disease_cause
biology.organism_classification
03 medical and health sciences
Listeria monocytogenes
medicine
Listeria
Food science
education
Food Science
- Language
- ISSN
- 0023-6438
The increase in foodborne illness outbreaks associated with fresh and fresh-cut produce in the USA has been attributed to ineffectiveness of current handling practices. This study describes the change in concentration of population of Listeria innocua to then quantify the effectiveness of washing treatments and storage temperature in the growth of Listeria monocytogenes in two popular fresh-cut produces, romaine lettuce and cantaloupe. L. innocua was used as a surrogate for L. monocytogenes to experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of washing treatments (water and chlorine) and develop growth curves at 5–36 °C storage. Both treatments were more effective (p