Microbial load reduction by washing vegetables in a rotary washer

Vegetable washing is an important primary process unit operation for value addition of the produce at farm level. Washing is used not only to remove field soil, dust, pesticides, but also the surface microbial load. Carrots, potatoes and spinach were washed mechanically in a rotary vegetable washing machine at varying speed and time and then evaluated for their quality. The microbiological washing efficiency, which is calculated by observing the total viable count of the surface of the vegetables before and after washing ranged between 96.5–99.8 per cent as compared to recommended 80 per cent indicating the adequacy of the vegetable washing machine.