Efficacy of 1% Hydrogen Peroxide Wash in Decontaminating Apples and Cantaloupe Melons

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Efficacy of 1% hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in decontaminating apples and cantaloupes containing human pathogens was investigated. Apples inoculated with Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) were washed with 1% H 2 O 2 at 20 or 40 °C for 15 or 30 min. Population reductions approaching 3 logs were obtained with all treatments. Comparable reductions were obtained with apples inoculated with 3 strains of E. coli O157:H7, associated with cider outbreaks, and a 5‐strain cocktail. The 1% H 2 O 2 treatment was ineffective against E. coli 766 (ATCC 9637; similar to Salmonella Poona) on inoculated cantaloupes. Treatment of apples with 1% H 2 O 2 was carried out successfully in a wet dump tank.