Microbiological Quality and Shelf Life Modeling of Ready-to-Eat Cicorino

摘要

Growth of the microbial population resident in ready-to-use fresh cut cicorino, a variety of Chichorium intybus, was determined in the various preparation steps with the aim of defining the hazard critical control points. The investigation concerned cut cicorino from two producers. During the process a 1- to 1.5-fold increase of microbial counts was observed, and the retail product showed values of 10~5 to 10~6 CFU/g. The shelf life of the product was kinetically modeled in order to check the effects of storage temperature and assess the microbial indexes most relevant for hygiene and quality of the distributed product.