Results showed that E. coli was more resistant to the optimum
hurdle treatment as well as other treatment groups compared with
L. monocytogenes. Our results were in comparison with the results
of Ding et al. (2011) reporting that E. coli with reductions from 0.50
to 2.40 log cfu/g was more resistant than Salmonella typhimurium,
Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogens to electrolyzed water
treatments on mushroom.
In conclusion, the newly developed hurdle sanitization method
is an environmental friendly, cheap and easy to perform approach
which its efficiency for fresh produce decontamination was
confirmed on four types of vegetables. It also significantly improved
the synergistic effect of ultrasound and SAEW treatment with simply
adding a water wash step at the end of the hurdle after the microbial
load was weakened and prone to further reduction.
Therefore, it is a valid approach to improve produce safety.However,
its combination with mild heat or substituting SAEW with other
sanitizers may be studied in seek of further microbial reductions