Browsing by Author "Toloza, Lorena"

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    Survival of listeria strains and shelf life determination of fresh blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) treated with cold atmospheric plasma
    (2024) Concha-Meyer, Anibal A.; González-Esparza, Alexandra; Cullen, Patrick J.; Veloso Espinosa, Felipe Eduardo; Favre Domínguez, Mario; Valenzuela Ahumada, Julio César; Toloza, Lorena; Niemira, Brendan A.
    Fresh blueberries are delicate, hand-picked, packaged, and refrigerated fruits vulnerable to spoilage and contamination. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a promising antimicrobial technology; therefore, this study evaluated the CAP treatment effect on acid-tolerant Listeria innocua and Listeria monocytogenes and evaluated changes in the quality of the treated fruit. Samples were spot-inoculated with pH 5.5 and 6.0 acid-adapted Listeria species. Samples were treated with gliding arc CAP for 15, 30, 45, and 60 s and evaluated after 0, 1, 4, 7, and 11 days of storage at 4 °C and 90% humidity for the following quality parameters: total aerobic counts, yeast and molds, texture, color, soluble solids, pH, and titratable acidity. CAP treatments of 30 s and over demonstrated significant reductions in pathogens under both the resistant strain and pH conditions. Sixty-second CAP achieved a 0.54 Log CFU g−1 reduction in L. monocytogenes (pH 5.5) and 0.28 Log CFU g−1 for L. monocytogenes (pH 6.0). Yeast and mold counts on day 0 showed statistically significant reductions after 30, 45, and 60 s CAP with an average 2.34 Log CFU g−1 reduction when compared to non-CAP treated samples. Quality parameters did not show major significant differences among CAP treatments during shelf life. CAP is an effective antimicrobial treatment that does not significantly affect fruit quality.