Impact of UV-C light on storage quality of fresh-cut pineapple in two different packages

The effectiveness of UV-C light treatments on microbial load and quality of fresh-cut pineapple sticks was studied. At all tested fluencies (200-4800 J/m2), UV-C light did not decrease the initial microbial load of pineapple sticks. Nevertheless, pineapple sticks submitted to 200 J/m2 UV-C light, packaged in conventional PET/EVOH/PE trays and stored at 6 °C up to 15 days showed slower yeast and lactic acid bacteria growth. In these samples, microbial counts were generally 2 log cycles lower that those observed in the untreated sticks. UV-C light did not promote changes in colour and increased consumer preference. Similar results were also obtained when UV-C light treatment was applied on pineapple sticks previously packaged in highly UV-C light transparent PA/PE pouches to avoid post treatment contamination. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.