Chlorophylls reductions in fresh-cut chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla) with various sanitizing agents

Abstract

Safety of fresh-cut products is a widespread health concern and can be achieved by washing treatments with various agents. However, use of these agents can adversely affect the product quality depending on the processing and subsequent storage conditions. The effects of washing treatments with chlorine (50-200 mg L-1), hydrogen peroxide (5.00-15.0%) and ozone (6.50 and 10.0 mg L-1) followed by a cold storage (15 days/4 °C) period on chlorophylls contents of fresh-cut Beta vulgaris var. cicla (chard) were investigated by HPLC-DAD. In this study, treating samples with the sanitizing agents resulted in reductions in both chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents. These reductions generally increased with increasing the agent concentration. Chlorophyll a was found to be more sensitive than chlorophyll b to oxidation reactions with the agents used. Chlorophyll reductions of samples treated with ozone were at the higher level than samples treated by using other agents. Since the differences between chlorophylls contents of the samples treated with chlorine and hydrogen peroxide are very small, hydrogen peroxide can be suggested as an alternative to chlorine for sanitizing chard (P<0.05).