| Jin-Wong Jeong, Seong-Son Park, Jeong-Ho Lim, Ke-Jai Park, Bum-Keun Kim, and Jung-Min Sung (Korea Fod Research Institute, Gyeonggi 463-746, Korea) |
| Abstract The microbial reduction and quality characteristics of salted Chinese cabbage using electrolyzed water were investigated. The electrolyzed water was used to control the microbes in the process of primary washing, salting, and secondary washing. The total bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, coliform, pH, salinity, vitamin C, and total sugar were analyzed. After primary washing by electrolyzed water, the total bacteria populations were reduced to 2.78 log cfu/g, and the coliform populations were similarly reduced. After secondary washing by electrolyzed water, the total bacteria population of Chinese cabbage was reduced to a maximum of 1.5 log cfu/g. The salinity of Chinese cabbage and salting solutions increased rapidly over three hours and then increased slowly. The sterilization effect of electrolyzed salting water could not last beyond 3 hours, because the OHCl concentration of electrolyzed water was reduced by over 90% at the third hours of the salting process. Vitamin C was reduced and total sugar did not change regardless of treatments during the salting process. Consequently, electrolyzed water was effective to remove microbes from salted Chinese cabbages. |
