Maintenance of the microbiological quality of minimally processed watermelon

Amongst the alterations that occour in fresh-cut products, the appearance of microorganisms from inadequatehandling and contact with equipments, surfaces utensils is noticed as something that increases the risk ofcontamination for consumers. The objective of this work was to evaluate the sanitizers sodium hypochlorite,hydrogen peroxide and sodium dichloro isocyanurate. The watermelons were chosen. Washed and through thefollowing treatments: control (with no sanitizer), sodium hypochlorite (25, 50 and 100 mg. L-1, for ten minutes), andsodium dichloro isocyanurate (50, 100 and 200 mg. L -1 for 10 minutes). After sanitization, the fruits were slidelengthwise in four parts and spheres were removed by the use of a fruit scoop. The spheres were drained for theremoval of excess liquid, packed and stored in cold room (5 ± 1°C and 90 ±5% of UR) for ten days. The analysesperformed every other day were pH, tiratable acidity, soluble solids, coliform determination, search for Salmonellaand counting of fungi and yeasts. The obtained results showed that there was no significant difference among thetreatments for the pH, titratable acidity and soluble solids variables. The presence of coliforms at 45°C, Salmonella,fungi and yeasts were not detected during storage of the watermelon spheres in any treatment. The obtained resultsenabled to conclude that the adoption of good manufacture practices is good enough to assure the safety of freshcutwatermelon.