Chemical Treatments to Sanitize Fresh-cut Vegetables

Ozone, Electrolyzed Water and Peracetic Acid

Abstract

The elaboration of fresh-cut vegetables needs a disinfection step to reduce the growth of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. In general, this requires the addition of sanitizers such as chlorine or hypochlorites. However, due to the fact that chlorine reacts with other organic compounds, leading to the formation of halogenated by-products that are harmful to health, such as trihalomethanes and chloramines, concerns over the toxicity of these derivatives have led to the current interest of using alternative and environmentally-friendlier products. The concern over these new sanitizers is not only due to their inactivation capabilities against a wide range of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, but at the same time, over their ability to maintain the sensory quality of the product. Currently, there are a number of sustainable and emerging disinfection techniques that can replace chlorine, providing other benefits, such as ozone (O₃), electrolyzed water (AE), ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, natural antimicrobials, bacteriocins, heat treatments, certain chemical agents as peroxyacetic acid and many others. In this paper, we review the effectiveness of O₃, AE and peroxyacetic acid. All of them have proven their microbicidal efficacy against pathogenic bacteria in fresh-cut vegetables.