Assessing the antimicrobial potential of aerosolised electrochemically activated solutions (ECAS) for reducing the microbial bio-burden on fresh food produce held under cooled or cold storage conditions

Thorn, Robin; Pendred, Julia; Reynolds, Darren M

Abstract

© 2017 The main aim of this study was to assess the antimicrobial efficacy of electrochemically activated fog (ECAF) for reducing the microbial bio-burden on artificially inoculated fresh produce held under cooled (cucumber and vine tomatoes) or cold (rocket and broccoli) storage conditions. The ECAF treatment (1100 ± 5 mV ORP; 50 ± 5 mg L−1 free chlorine; 2.7 ± 0.1 pH) resulted in a significant log reduction in the potential pathogen E. coli recovered from rocket (2.644 Log10 CFU g−1), broccoli (4.204 Log10 CFU g−1), cucumber (3.951 Log10 CFU g−1) and tomatoes (2.535 Log10 CFU g-1) after 5 days. ECAF treatment also resulted in a significant log reduction in potential spoilage organisms, whereby a 3.533 Log10 CFU g−1, 2.174 Log10 CFU g−1 and 1.430 Log10 CFU g−1 reduction in presumptive Pseudomonads was observed for rocket, broccoli and cucumber respectively, and a 3.527 Log10 CFU g−1 reduction in presumptive Penicillium spp. was observed for tomatoes (after 5 days). No adverse visual effects on produce were recorded. The results of this study will inform industrial scale-up trials within commercial facilities (assessing shelf-life, microbial quality and organoleptic assessment) to assess the developed ECAF technology platform within a real food processing environment.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 26, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 27, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 2, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 27, 2018
• Journal: Food Microbiology
• Print ISSN: 0740-0020
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 68
• Pages: 41-50
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2017.06.018
• Keywords: ECAS, electrochemically activated solution(s), ECAF, electrochemically, activated fog, fogging, disinfection, fresh produce
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/877014
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2017.06.018
• Related Public URLs: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2017.06.018
• Contract Date: Aug 4, 2017