Journal
JOURNAL OF FOOD PROTECTION
Volume 80, Issue 2, Pages 220-224Publisher
INT ASSOC FOOD PROTECTION
DOI: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-16-061
Keywords
Chlorine disinfection; Food safety; Leafy greens; Virus
Funding
- Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture [2013-67005-21188]
- NIFA [2013-67005-21188, 577517] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Viral foodbome outbreaks are a serious threat to public health, and fresh produce is becoming increasingly recognized as a transmission vehicle. To limit foodbome disease, ready-to-eat leafy greens are typically washed with a chlorine-based sanitizer during commercial production. This study assessed the efficacy of a chlorine-based sanitizer against coliphage MS2, as a potential surrogate for foodbome viruses, on fresh-cut romaine lettuce during simulated commercial production using a small-scale processing line. Before processing, romaine lettuce was inoculated to contain approximately 10(5) and 10(6) PFU/g of MS2 for experiments with and without sanitizer, respectively. Lettuce samples were collected following each stage of processing, which included mechanical shredding, 2 min of flume washing (with or without 25 ppm of free chlorine), shaker table dewatering, and centrifugal drying. In addition, the spent centrifuge water and flume wash water were collected, with the flume water concentrated using hollow-fiber ultrafiltration. MS2 was recovered from lettuce in Tris-glycine buffer and quantified as PFUs in a double-agar overlay assay. The greatest reduction in MS2 occurred between shredding and flume washing, with levels remaining relatively stable following flume washing with or without 25 ppm of free chlorine. Average total reductions of 0.8 and 1.0 log PFU/g were seen after processing with and without the sanitizer, respectively, with no statistical difference observed between the two treatments (P > 0.05). The average MS2 level in the spent centrifugation water started at 4.0 log PFU/ml for experiments with sanitizer and the average MS2 reduction in the flume wash water was 4 log (PFU) for experiments with sanitizer, demonstrating that removals could be achieved in the water itself. These findings suggest that the currently recommended commercial production practices are unable to effectively decrease viruses once they have attached to leafy greens during commercial processing.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available