Antimicrobial efficacy of gaseous chlorine dioxide against Salmonella enterica Typhimurium on grape tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Abstract

© 2016 Institute of Food Science and Technology The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of gas level and treatment condition on antimicrobial efficacy of ClO2gas against Salmonella enterica Typhimurium on grape tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Grape tomatoes were dip-inoculated with inoculum of S. enterica Typhimurium TISTR 292 (ATCC 13311) (9.79 ± 0.39 log CFU mL−1) and allowed to dry before treatments. The pre-inoculated samples were exposed to 0.15–0.85 mg of ClO2gas, for up to 58 min. The treatments at 4 and 25 °C resulted in population reductions of S. enterica Typhimurium of up to 3.95 ± 0.22 and 7.37 ± 0.39 log CFU per fruit, respectively. The population reduction results were used to construct statistical models to predict efficacy of ClO2gas. The second-order equations for treatments at 4 and 25 °C had R2of 0.87 and 0.95, respectively, and indicated that efficacy of ClO2gas was significantly influenced by ClO2gas level, exposure time and treatment temperature.