A review on ozone-based treatments for fruit and vegetables preservation

The development and application of efficient methods for the preservation of food products have always been industrial concerns. The search for new technologies that assure safety and quality of the products is an ever-growing challenge. In this context, ozone has emerged, presenting a set of characteristics that makes it highly suitable for fruits and vegetables. Ozone properties and ozone applications to fruits and vegetables industries are included in this work. Due to the potential of ozone-based treatments for obtaining safe products with extended shelf life, several researchers have been focusing on this topic. A compilation of those works is presented in this review, with emphasis on the ozone impact on microbial inactivation and quality aspects of processed fruits and vegetables, and fruit juices as well. This review can be a helpful tool for finding process conditions of ozone-based treatments and subsequent impacts on quality and safety attributes of already studied products, opening further areas of research.