With neutralization after treatment, EO water succeeded in lowering the viable cells ofL. monocytogeneson whole fruits comparing
with untreated berries; however, its antimicrobial activity was not
considerably different (P>0.05) from DW and NaOCl solution. For
treatments with EO water and NaOClsolution, the highest log reduction was achieved at an exposure time of 5 min, whereas 10 min was
required to obtain maximum antibacterial activity of DW. In contrast to the results onL. monocytogenes, washing E. coliO157:H7
contaminated strawberries with NaOCl solution followed by neutralization (Figure 2A) showed a greater decontamination effect than
DW at all exposure times, whereas the former had a similar antibacterial activity with EO water at each point of exposure time. Without
neutralization (Figure 1B and 2B), NaOCl and EO water solutions
demonstrated an equivalent antimicrobial effect againstL. monocytogenesandE. coliO157:H7 at all exposure times