Efficacy of ozone micro-bubbles for reducing microbial contamination and browning of shredded organic red cabbage

Red cabbage is widely marketed as a fresh-cut ready to eat product in the shredded form due to the convenience and fresh characteristics.
However, an increased number of outbreaks associated with fresh-cut produce brought the necessity to deal with microbial decontamination methods of the fresh-cut products.
Thus, this study investigated the efficacy of ozone micro bubbles (O3-MBs) in microbial control and to maintain the quality of minimally processed shredded organic red cabbage.
The shredded organic red cabbage was washed in 0.5 mg L^-1 O3-MBs for 5 min at ambient temperature and compared with a 100 mg L^-1 sodium hypochlorite solution for 5 min.
For the total bacteria counts, coliform counts and yeast and mold, O3-MBs was optimal by causing a 1-2 log reduction, which was more effective than that of the result achieved by 100 mg L^-1 sodium hypochlorite.
The amount of phenolic compounds of the shredded red cabbage was reduced by O3-MBs treatments.
Washing with O3-MBs also inhibited PPO activity from 6 days of storage at 4°C. An inhibitory effect of the browning enzyme and substrate resulted in lower browning symptoms of shredded red cabbage during storage.
This result indicated that O3-MBs could be an effective method for reducing microbial contamination and browning in fresh-cut red cabbage.

II Asian Horticultural Congress

N. Pongprasert, P. Jitareerat, V. Srilaong

ozone micro bubbles, red cabbage, microbial contamination

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2018.1208.57