Sanitizer treatment
For the sanitization of fresh turnips, the outer layer of turnips
was peeled before the turnip was cut into 4 equal portions because
it is a root vegetable covered with soil and not consumed in its
unpeeled form. Two portions were immersed into 1 L of the prepared
sanitizer solutions without agitation at room temperature for
the proposed period of time (Table 1) while the other two untreated
portions were served as controls. Due to the variation in
natural microflora, the microbial load of treated and untreated
samples was compared among different parts of the same turnip
instead of different turnips for more accurate assess of the antimicrobial
effect of various sanitizers.
For the disinfection of Salmonella spp., three whole turnips were
used in which two inoculated turnips were submerged into 3.5 L of
sanitizer solutions without agitation at room temperature for the
proposed treatment time while another turnip was used as control.
The concentration and treatment conditions of each sanitizer are
listed in Table 1. The treatment conditions were suggested based on
the maximum sanitizer concentration and the most effective
treatment time obtained from previous studies and regulatory
limits.