Effect of carbon dioxide micro bubbles in combination with chlorine dioxide solution to reduce microbial contamination and browning of fresh-cut cos lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)
Conference proceedings article
Authors/Editors
Strategic Research Themes
Publication Details
Author list: Pongprasert N., Jitareerat P., Srilaong V.
Publisher: International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS)
Publication year: 2020
Volume number: 1275
Start page: 39
End page: 43
Number of pages: 5
ISSN: 0567-7572
eISSN: 2406-6168
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
Abstract
In this research, the effect of carbon dioxide micro bubbles (CO2-MBs) in combination with chlorine dioxide solution (ClO2) to reduce microbial contamination and maintain the quality of fresh-cut cos lettuce was investigated. Fresh-cut cos lettuce was washed in 5 ppm ClO2 for 5 min and compared with CO2-MBs + 5 mg L-1 of ClO2. Fresh-cut cos lettuce washed in water (5 min) were used as control. Treated lettuce then was packaged in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and stored for 10 days at 4°C. Initially, ClO2 water and CO2-MBs combined with ClO2 reduced the total mesophilic population by 1 log reduction. However, treated lettuce washed in CO2-MBs + ClO2 showed lower amount of total bacteria count after 2-10 days of storage. Washed with CO2-MBs + ClO2 also inhibited the growth of yeast and mold and coliform bacteria during storage. ClO2 solution treatment activated browning symptom as compared with control. However, CO2-MBs + ClO2 reduced browning symptom of fresh cut lettuce compared with ClO2 water alone. The amount of phenolic compounds of the fresh cut lettuce was reduced by CO2-MBs + ClO2 treatments. Washing with CO2-MBs + ClO2 also reduced PPO activity as compared with washing in ClO2 alone which is correlated with a high value of L* and a lower browning score during storage. An inhibitory effect of browning enzyme and substrate resulted in a lower browning symptom of fresh-cut lettuce during storage. This result indicated that CO2-MBs + ClO2 could be an alternative method to ClO2 for fresh-cut cos lettuce due to a bacterial inhibitory effect and reduction of the adverse effect of ClO2 to browning. © 2020 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Carbon dioxide micro bubbles, Fresh-cut lettuce