Interventions for ensuring food safety in mangoes during phytosanitary treatments

• Main Author: Kakani, Grihalakshmi
• Other Authors: Castillo, Alejandro
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Food safety; Phytosanitary
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1119; http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1119

Increased consumption combined with increasing risk to foodborne illnesses makes it necessary to identify potential sources of contamination in the food chain and apply intervention processes that prevent/minimize the risk of contamination. The current study investigated the effect of the decontamination treatments with chlorine and lactic acid on the survival of Salmonella on the rind and stem scar portions of inoculated mangoes. The presence of the pathogen in the treatment water, internalization and the effect of the treatments on the quality of the fruit were also determined. For scar (hydrothermal), a 3.0 log reduction was obtained for control and additional reductions of approximately 2.2 and 1.3 log cycles were obtained with lactic acid and chlorine respectively. Data indicates reduction in pathogen population in cooling for all the treatments except two (Control – increase of 0.3 logs, LA-LA – increase of 0.3 logs). A 0.5 log reduction was obtained for the control (initial - 4.4 log10 CFU/10 cm2) and additional reductions of approximately 1.7 and 1.3 log cycles were obtained for treatments with lactic acid and chlorine respectively during hydrothermal treatment on the rind. For cooling, lactic acid and chlorine gave an overall reduction of approximately 1.3 and 1.4 logs respectively compared to control. Although Salmonella was not detected in the core stem tissue by direct plating method for most of the samples, it was detected after the enrichment method. The pathogen was detected on the rind, stem scar and the stem tissue for most of the samples for as long as 12 days. Salmonella was detected in treatment water with and without sanitizers after dipping mangoes. Lactic acid was found to be more effective in reducing pathogen population compared to chlorine in all the treatment combinations; however, the sensory aspects (color and texture) of the fruit were compromised.