Analysis of the Dynamic Succession of Bacterial Communities during Industrial Processing of Fresh-cut Lettuce

• Published in: Shipin gongye ke-ji Vol. 46; no. 16; pp. 202 - 209
• Main Authors: Yan LI, Wenhao BI, Ting CHEN, Weiwei JIN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: The editorial department of Science and Technology of Food Industry 01.08.2025
• Subjects: bacterial communities; fresh-cut lettuce; industrial processing; sodium hypochlorite
• ISSN: 1002-0306
• DOI: 10.13386/j.issn1002-0306.2024110200

Objective: Exploring the dynamic changes in the bacterial community during the industrial processing of fresh-cut lettuce. Methods: The bacterial composition of fresh-cut lettuce at different processing stages (raw material M, pre-washing PW, first washing W1, second washing W2, third washing W3, finished product P) was studied using high-throughput sequencing combined with traditional culture techniques. Results: The aerobic bacteria, coliforms and mould counts of lettuce decreased to 2.85±0.06 lg CFU/g, 1.01±0.03 lg CFU/g and 1.47±0.04 lg CFU/g after the four washes, which were lower than current standards of the enterprise Q/WWK0002S-2020. High-throughput sequencing results showed that at the phylum level, Proteobacteria was the dominant bacteria throughout the processing of fresh-cut lettuce, with a relative abundance of over 70%. At the genus level, the dominant bacteria in the of raw lettuce and pre-cleaning process were Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Alkanindiges. After the first NaClO cleaning, the ge