ABSTRACT
An increased consumer demand for bagged prepared fruits and vegetables has recently occurred, these being ready-to-eat products. The different phases in the preparation of these products include cleaning, peeling, cutting, washing, drying and packaging. The quality, safety and shelf-life of ready-to-eat products is highly influenced by the washing process which is generally performed by soaking the vegetables in cold water containing disinfectants (usually sodium hypochlorite). We therefore evaluated the presence of halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOC) in 70 samples of ready-to-eat products produced by 15 different establishments. Results showed that 54% of the products were contaminated by at least one halogenated VOC. Trialomethane was the most frequently detected contaminant and 50% of samples were found to contain chloroform. Contamination by other halogenated VOCs was less frequent. Also, there was variation in concentration values of contaminants between different establishments and different packages. No halogenated VOCs were found in products from only three of the 15 establishments included in the study.
