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Sanitization Effectiveness Of Alkaline-Dissolved Essential Oils As Organic Produce Washing Solutions, Marion Lewis Harness Iii

Masters Theses

Produce is often rinsed immediately post-harvest to remove dirt and debris. Rinse water can be a point of cross-contamination if no antimicrobials are present. While plant essential oils (EOs) are recognized as antimicrobials, their hydrophobicity makes them difficult to implement in rinsing solutions. In this study, the efficacy of emulsified EOs were examined against Salmonella on the surface of cherry tomatoes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 on the surface of baby spinach. Contaminated produce samples were rinsed in an emulsions of clove bud oil or thyme oil at 0.2 and 0.5% (v/v), as well as free chlorine at 200 ppm and …