Prediction of total microorganisms and coliforms in two types of vegetable after washing with sanitizers by using artificial neural networks.

摘要

The objectives of this study were to investigate the efficacy of two sanitizers, i.e. hypochlorous and peracetic acids, in reducing total microorganism and coliforms levels on tomato and lettuce and to mathematically predict the relationship among the initial load, types of vegetable, types and concentration of sanitizer, and residual micro-organism levels after the sanitizing by applying artificial neural networks (ANNs). The total microorganisms on tomato fruits and lettuce showed 2.18-2.35 and 0.48-0.63 log₁₀ cfu/g reduction (p<=0.05) respectively, when sanitized with hypochlorous acid (as aqueous chlorine at 25, 50 and 75 ppm). Whilst in peracetic acid (at 30, 40 and 50 ppm), the total microorganisms on tomato fruits and lettuce showed 2.86-3.75 and 1.21-1.44 log₁₀ cfu/g reduction (p10 cfu/g reduction (p