摘要：Immunocompromised peoples cannot eat raw, uncooked or undercooked foods because of the associated high risk of infection. One way to overcome this situation is the use of ionizing radiation applied to food . This work covers the research and development of some salads, which due to the normal risk of adverse microbiological contamination, are not usually served to immunocompromised hospital patients. Cucumber, tomato, carrot, green leaf lettuce and green capsicum were treated with 1, 2, 2.5 and 3 kGy radiation from a 60 Co gamma irradiator. Changes of the "native" microflora, and some specific nutritional and physical-chemical properties of irradiated salad vegetables were analysed. It was observed that generally 1 kGy irradiated samples had less nutritional loss and better sensory score than the samples irradiated with higher doses. But the initial microflora of the samples were so high that minimum doses required to meet the sanitary microbiological levels suggested for foods intended for immunocompromised people and other potential target groups were 2, 2.5, 2.5 and 2 kGy for cucumber, tomato, carrot and green capsicum respectively. In case of green leaf lettuce the criteria were not met even at above radiation doses. The initial microflora of the samples will have to be reduced before irradiation to meet microbiological sanitary criteria at low dose treatment before safely recommend irradiated salads for hospitalized immuno compromised peoples and other target groups.
