To verify that PMA combined with 0.5% Triton was the best combination to selectively detect infectious HAV in vegetables, thermally inactivated HAV suspensions were inoculated at ca. 6 × 104 and 6 × 103 TCID50 and treated with 50 μM PMA with or without 0.5% Triton. Results showed that PMA–0.5% Triton pretreatment reduced the signal of inactivated HAV by 1.53 and 2.04 logs when inoculated at 6 × 104 and 6 × 103 TCID50, respectively, whereas PMA alone only reduced the signal by 1.09 and 1.56 logs, respectively (Table 4). The pretreatment with PMA and 0.5% Triton was further evaluated in lettuce, parsley and spinach artificially inoculated at concentrations of ca. 6 × 104, 6 × 103 and 6 × 102 TCID50, in triplicate. Results showed that the pretreatment was partially efficient in reducing the RT-qPCR signal between 0.5 and 2 logs (Table 5). The RT-qPCR signal was only completely eliminated in PMA–0.5% Triton treated concentrates corresponding to parsley inoculated at 6 × 102 TCID50.