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:: Washing Of Fresh Cut Vegetables
Drench Washing.
Washing of the produce is undertaken in baths. This wash water is responsible for removing mainly soils off the
produce. Hence microbial loading of the water increases, thereby offering a contamination vector of the other
produce. It is therefor essential to treat this wash water with a disinfectant in order to improve and control the
microbial quality of the water. In this way, one is able to offer some surface microbial reduction on the produce,
thereby extending the shelf-life.
When looking at reductions in counts there 3 are factors that determine the efficacy of the disinfecting solution:
contact time, concentration and turbulance (turbulance within wash solutions). The shorter the contact time and
the absence of turbulance requires a higher concentration of Harvest Wash WT.
Therefore, if washing of produce is under taken in a proper bath where there is water turbulance that drives the
produce through the packing line, the the recommended dosage is 20 - 30 ppm ( 1 - 1,5L Harvest Wash WT per
1000L water) with a contact time of 1 minute.
If washing is under taken in small baths/buckets where there is no turbulance and contact time is under 5 minutes
then the recommended dosage is 40 - 50 ppm (2 - 2,5 L Harvest Wash per 1000 L water).
Dry Packing (Ie. Lettuces That Are Packed Whole).
When produce is packed without washing, the shelf-life can be extended by spraying with Harvest Wash WT
onto produce, especially onto the cut ends and damaged areas. This will impact on the shelf-life by reducing
oxidative browning and microbial rot of produce. The Harvest Wash can be applied as a very fine spray onto
the produce (do not wet the produce), this is done at a dosage of 50ppm (2,5L Harvest Wash per 1000L water).
Hydrocooling Of Produce.
Harvest Wash has been successfully used in the hydrocooling of vegetables as it can inactivate microorganisms
at refrigeration temperatures. The typical dosage is 1 litre Harvest Wash to 1000 litres of water . We have found
that not only do we keep the produce free of fungal contamination but the copper coils are also kept clean during
the cooling cycles as well.
The list of vegetables which have been treated include potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, celery,
onions, sweet potatoes, melons, okra and ginger to name but a few.
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