Ozone Treatments for Preserving Fresh Vegetables Quality: A Critical Review
Résumé
Ozone is recognized as an antimicrobial agent for vegetables storage, washing, andprocessing. This strong disinfectant is now being used in the food industry. In this review, thechemical and physical properties of ozone, its generation, and factors affecting ozone processingefficiency were explained as well as recent regulatory developments in the food industry. By thenselecting three vegetables, we show that ozone avoids and controls biological growth on vegetables,keeping their attractive appearance and sensorial qualities, assuring nutritional characteristics’retention and maintaining and increasing the shelf-life. In liquid solution, ozone can be used todisinfect processing water and vegetables, and in gaseous form, ozone helps to sanitize and preservevegetables during storage. The multifunctionality of ozone makes it a promising food processingagent. However, if ozone is improperly used, it causes some deleterious effects on products, such aslosses in their sensory quality. For an effective and a safe use of ozone, specific treatment conditionsshould be determined for all kinds of vegetables. In a last step, we propose highlighting the differentessential characteristics of ozone treatment in order to internationally harmonize the data relating tothe treatments carried-out
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