Combined sustainable sanitising treatments to reduce Escherichia coli and Salmonella Enteritidis growth on fresh-cut kailan-hybrid broccoli

•Single/combined sanitising treatments were studied on inoculated pathogens.•Peroxyacetic acid and neutral electrolyzed water were more effective than NaClO.•Double combinations of treatments attained better pathogens control.•The triple combinations did not imply an enhanced benefit over the double ones.

The effects of peroxyacetic acid (PA), neutral electrolysed water (NEW), ultraviolet C light (UV-C) and superatmospheric O2 packaging (HO), single or combined, on the growth rate of Escherichia coli and S. Enteritidis inoculated onto fresh-cut kailan-hybrid broccoli were studied throughout 14 days of shelf life at 5 and 10 °C. As controls, unwashed, water-washed and NaClO-washed were used. PA and NEW showed a better sanitising effect than NaClO against both E. coli/S. Enteritidis with reductions of 2.2/2.7 and 2.6/2.6 log CFU g−1, respectively. UV-C attained E. coli/S. Enteritidis decreases of 1.3-1.4/2.1-2.2 log CFU g−1 compared to unwashed samples. The bacteriostatic effects of PA or NEW were improved when they were combined with UV-C, decreasing E. coli and S. Enteritidis counts by about 3 log CFU g−1. After 14 days, PA and NEW-treated samples attained E. coli/S. Enteritidis reductions at 5 °C of 2.3/1.4 and about 1 log CFU g−1, respectively. Storage of those samples at 10 °C masked that sanitising effect. At both storage temperatures, UV-C-treated samples registered lower E. coli and S. Enteritidis reductions (or higher increases for S. Enteritidis at 10 °C) regarding conventional NaClO-sanitized samples or other single treatments. However, PA, NEW or UV-C-treated samples under HO at both storage temperatures showed better bacterial control than individual treatments with the greatest effectiveness for UV-C + HO. Triple combination did not imply an enhanced benefit over double combinations. Conclusively, PA, NEW and UV-C seems to be effective emergent alternatives to NaClO to reduce initial E. coli and S. Enteritidis populations in fresh-cut kailan-hybrid broccoli. Storage at 5 or 10 °C under HO greatly controlled microbial growth.