Table 1.
Viable counts of ready‐to‐eat mixed salad and romaine lettuce washed under the water tap and after immersion in a container with water
| Washing method | Total aerobic counta | Enterobacteriaceae counta | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unwashed | 1st wash | 5th wash | Unwashed | 1st wash | 5th wash | |
| Rinsing | Ready‐to‐eat mixed salad | |||||
| (2 L/min) | 7.2 (6.4–7.9) | 6.7 (6.3–7.0) | 6.8 (5.6–7.3) | 5.0 (4.6–5.5) | 4.7 (4.0–5.2) | 4.7 (4.0–5.0) |
| Rinsing | Ready‐to‐eat mixed salad | |||||
| (8 L/min) | 8.3 (8.0–8.5) | 7.6 (7.4–7.8)c | 7.3 (7.1–7.5)c | 5.7 (5.4–5.8) | 5.2 (4.9–5.4)b | 4.2 (3.9–4.5)c |
| Romaine lettuce | ||||||
| 5.0 (4.6–5.4) | 4.1 (3.9–4.3)b | 3.6 (3.1–4.0)c | 3.4 (2.1–4.6) | 2.7 (2.0–3.3) | 2.2 (2.0–2.7) | |
| Immersion | Ready‐to‐eat mixed salad | |||||
| 7.2 (6.5–7.6) | 7.1 (5.8–7.3) | 6.7 (5.5–7.0) | 5.1 (4.8–5.7) | 4.8 (4.5–5.2) | 4.3 (3.2–5.2) | |
| Romaine lettuce | ||||||
| 6.1 (5.4–6.6) | 5.8 (5.1–6.3) | 5.4 (4.8–5.1) | 5.0 (4.5–5.4) | 4.5 (4.1–4.8) | 4.3 (3.5–4.4) | |
a
Counts expressed as median log10 CFU/g salad of six replicates with intermedian range (25‐75%).
b
Indicates p ≤ 0.05 compared to unwashed.
c
indicates p ≤ 0.01 compared to unwashed in the same row.