Research Publications (Food Safety)

This study evaluated the combined antibacterial effect of 460 nm LED illumination and chitosan on Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes on fresh-cut melon surface and its impact on the quality of melon at a total dose of 2.4 kJ/cm2 at 4 and 10 °C.

The purpose was to create a novel composite food preservative for fresh-cut lettuce using flavonoids and chitosan from sea buckthorn leaves (SBL). Sea buckthorn leaves were extracted with ethanol as the extraction solvent and ultrasonic-assisted extraction to obtain flavonoid from sea buckthorn leaf crude (FSL), and then the FSL was secondarily purified with AB-8 resin and polyamide resin to obtain flavonoid from sea buckthorn leaf purified (FSL-1).

This study evaluated the microbiological contamination of fresh-cut produce in Korea. A total of 108 fresh-cut vegetables and fruits were surveyed for the aerobic mesophilic (AM) count, aerobic psychrophilic (AP) count, total coliform, generic Escherichia coli, yeast and mold, and foodborne pathogens. AM counts ranged from 1.00 to 7.36 log CFU/g, and AP counts showed very similar results as AM counts. For total coliform and generic E.

Author(s): Yingshu He, Ruixi Chen, Yan Qi, Joelle K. Salazar, Shimei Zhang, Mary Lou Tortorello, Xiangyu Deng, Wei Zhang

Author(s): Yan Man, Meijing Ban, An Li, Xinxin Jin, Yuanfang Du, Ligang Pan

Inoculation studies are important when assessing microbial survival and growth in food products. These studies typically involve the pregrowth of multiple strains of a target pathogen under a single condition; this emphasizes strain diversity.

The present study aimed to examine the efficiency of ethanolic extract of Capsicum annuum L (CAE) in improving the shelf life and quality of fresh‐cut C. annuum (FCCa). The uniformly sliced FCCa were prewashed with sodium hypochlorite solution (NaOCl) and then treated with 10% of CAE. The foodborne pathogens of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica were patched on the surface of FCCa and stored at 15°C and 4°C for 12 days.

As demand for fresh-cut produce increases, minimizing the risk of salmonellosis becomes critical for the produce industry. Sanitizers are routinely used during commercial flume washing of fresh-cut produce to minimize cross-contamination from the wash water .

Fresh‐cut apples were dip‐coated in antimicrobial/antibrowning solutions. The developed solutions had the dual effectiveness of both controlling browning and reducing pathogenic bacterial populations, which maintained the fresh‐like appearance and texture of apple slices for 35 days and reduced populations of Salmonella to undetectable levels (<1 log) without growth throughout the storage at 4°C.