Abstract
Fresh-cut vegetables are generally contaminated with various bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli have been isolated from some samples of vegetables. In this study, we estimated the sterilization effect of the low temperature steam-heating process on fresh-cut vegetables, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, Chinese chive, welsh onion, carrot, pumpkin and potato. We measured aerobic plate count (APC), coliform count and the E. coli O-157: H7count in the fresh-cut vegetables that are washed with tap water, treated with sodium hypochlorite acid solution (150 ppm availablce hlorine), oprr ocessed by low temperature steam-heating process. As the result, thel ow temperature steam-heating method greatly decreased the APC and the coliform count in the vegetables and suppressed the growth of the aerobic or facultative anaerobic bacteria and the coliform bacteria in the vegetables stored at 10°C. Inconclusion, the low temperature steam-heating process for fresh-cut vegetables is an excellent new method for greatly decreasing the aerobic and coliform bacteria, and improving the microbial storage stability while holding the similar quality.
