3.2. Citric acid
Using citric acid as a sanitizer did not show important results in
the present research under the tested conditions. For carrots and
lettuce no inactivation was reported after 15 min regardless of the
concentration (Fig. 2a and b). Meanwhile, in the case of tomato,
a very low inactivation (0.7 log) was observed after 9 min using the
highest concentration (3%). In a study conducted with Yersinia
enterocolitica using different concentrations of citric acid, 3% did
not show any inactivation when the solution was used at 20 C even
after 30 min, but inactivation was enhanced when temperature was
raised up to 40 C and when higher concentration of citric acid was
used (5e20%) (Virto et al., 2005).