Inactivation of Salmonella Typhimurium in fresh-cut lettuce during chlorine washing: Assessing the impacts of free chlorine concentrations and exposure times

摘要: The aim of this study was to evaluate, quantify and model the inactivation of Salmonella in fresh-cut lettuce during washings with chlorinated water at different free chlorine concentrations (FCC, 0–150 mg/L). Individual fresh-cut lettuce samples (4 cm2) were inoculated with a Salmonella culture (ca. 4 log CFU/cm2) and washed with 100-mL solutions with different FCC for different times (0–150 s). The surviving Salmonella cells recovered from samples were enumerated by plate count methodology. A fast decay on Salmonella counts was marked in the first 20 s of washing, followed by a slowing down on reductions. A maximum of 2.6 log-decrease was observed after 2.5-min washing regardless of FCC. The log-linear with tail primary model coupled with a linear secondary model was fitted to inactivation data obtained at FCC from 50 to 150 mg/L through global regression analysis, yielding a suitable model to …