Sequential treatment with slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) and UVC light-emitting diodes (UVC-LEDs) for decontamination of Salmonella Typhimurium on lettuce

The present study investigates a small-scale system comprising a sequential treatment with slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) washing and UVC light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for the inactivation of Salmonella on lettuce. Lettuce was inoculated with a Salmonella cocktail to achieve a final concentration of 6.67 log10 CFU/g. Alone treatment by SAEW washing (available chlorine concentration-ACC 20–80 ppm, 1–7 min) or UVC-LED irradiation (50–200 μW/cm2, 1–30 min) resulted in the reduction of 1–1.8 log10 CFU/g Salmonella on lettuce. The sequential treatment with SAEW washing and UVC-LED significantly (p