Intro -- Contents -- Quantitative Methods for Food Safety and Quality in the Vegetable Industry -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Aspects on Food Safety and Quality of Vegetable Products -- 3 Application of Quantitative Methods for Food Safety and Quality of Vegetable Products -- 4 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Quality and Safety Management Systems in the Production of Vegetables -- 1 Food Security in the Production of Vegetables -- 2 Quality Management System in the Production of Vegetables -- 2.1 Good Agricultural Practices -- 2.2 Good Manufacturing Practices -- 2.3 Integrated Pest Management Programs -- 2.4 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) System -- 3 Regulations -- 4 Quality Certifications -- 5 Audits -- 6 Traceability of Vegetable Products -- 7 Quality and Non-quality Cost -- 8 Risks and Control Measures in the Production of Vegetables Using an Integrated Quality Management System -- 9 Risks Associated with the Production of Vegetables -- 10 Microbial contamination in vegetables -- 11 Reduction of Microbiological Risk in Vegetables -- 12 Microbial Detection Methods in Vegetables -- 13 Chemical Risk -- 14 Maximum Residue Limits and Regulations -- 15 Legislative Alignment in Relation to MRL -- 16 Detection Method for Chemical Residues in vegetables -- 17 Final Remarks -- References -- Relevant Pathogenic and Spoilage Microorganisms in Vegetable Products -- 1 Introduction to Relevant Pathogenic Microorganisms in Vegetables: An Approach from Farm to Fork -- 1.1 Vegetables: Essential Part of Healthy Diet -- 1.2 Microorganisms in Vegetables -- 2 Emerging Foodborne Pathogens in Vegetables, Including Bacteria, Viruses, and Parasites -- 2.1 Pathogen Outbreaks Associated with Vegetables -- 2.2 Pathogenic Microorganisms of High Concern -- 2.2.1 Spore-Forming Pathogenic Bacteria -- 2.2.2 Viruses -- 2.2.3 Protozoan Parasites.

3 Microbial Contamination Sources and (Pre-harvest and Post-harvest) Risk Factors -- 3.1 Pre-harvest Contamination Sources and Risk Factors -- 3.1.1 Wildlife and Livestock -- 3.1.2 Irrigation Water -- 3.1.3 Manure Application -- 3.1.4 Climate and Weather Factors -- 3.1.5 Landscape and Geographical Factor -- 3.2 Post-harvest Contamination Sources and Risk Factors -- 3.2.1 Harvest -- 3.2.2 Processing -- 3.2.3 Transportation and Storage -- 4 Mitigation Strategies and Control Measures to Reduce Microbial Risk in Vegetables -- 4.1 Pre-harvest -- 4.2 Washing and Disinfection -- 4.3 Irradiation -- 4.4 Bacteriophages -- 5 Spoilage Microorganisms in Fresh Vegetables: Contamination Sources and Control Measures -- 5.1 Specific Spoilage Microorganism -- 5.2 Spoilage Bacteria -- 5.3 Spoilage Fungi -- 5.4 Spoilage Control Measures -- 5.4.1 Fungicides -- 5.4.2 Increasing Resistance to Infection after Harvest -- 5.4.3 Prevention of Injury -- 5.4.4 Heat Processing -- 5.4.5 Ionizing Radiation -- 6 Summary -- References -- Water and Wastewater Use in the Fresh Produce Industry: Food Safety and Environmental Implications -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Water in the Fresh Produce Industry -- 3 Process Water, Recycled Water, and Wastewater in the Fresh Produce Industry -- 4 Process Water and Its Implications on Food Safety -- 5 Disinfection Technologies for Process Wash Water -- 6 Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) -- 7 Environmental Impact of Process Water, Recycled Water, and Wastewater -- 8 Future Research Needs in Process Water Disinfection -- References -- Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) and Quantitative Analysis for Disinfection and Treatment of Water in the Vegetable Industry -- 1 Water Concerns in the Fresh-Cut Produce Industry -- 2 Assessment of Water Quality -- 2.1 Policy Framework for Water Analysis -- 2.2 Chemical Parameters in Water Quality.

2.3 Water Pathogens: Microbial Analytical Methods -- 2.3.1 Standard Analytical Methods -- 2.3.2 Advanced Analytical Methods -- 2.4 Organic Contamination in Wastewater Vegetable Industry -- 2.5 Priority Pollutants (PPs) and Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) -- 3 Traditional Wash Water Treatment in the Vegetable Food Processing Industry -- 4 Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) -- 4.1 Solar AOPs -- 4.2 Solar AOPs for Removing Chemical Pollutants and Water Pathogens in Wastewater -- 5 Mathematical Modeling of AOPs -- 5.1 Simulation of AOP Operation -- 5.2 Case Study: Photocatalytic Disinfection of Water -- 5.2.1 Kinetic Model -- 5.2.2 Reactor Design (Simulation and Validation) -- 6 A Quantitative Approach to Assess the Impact of AOPs on the Microbial Safety of Vegetables -- 6.1 Quantitative Risk Assessment -- 6.2 Predictive Microbiology Models -- 6.2.1 Growth Models -- 6.2.2 Disinfection Models -- 6.3 Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) Applied to RTE Vegetables -- References -- Quality of Vegetable Products: Assessment of Physical, Chemical, and Microbiological Changes in Vegetable Products by Nondestr... -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Overview of Nondestructive Instruments -- 2.1 Computer Vision -- 2.2 Multispectral Imaging -- 2.3 Near-Infrared Spectroscopy -- 2.4 Hyperspectral Imaging -- 3 Analysis Methods and Chemometrics -- 3.1 Preprocessing and Calibration -- 3.1.1 Image Preprocessing and Correction -- Image Enhancement -- Linear Point Operation -- Correlation -- Filtering -- Geometry Transformations -- Translation -- Symmetry -- Rotation -- 3.1.2 Spectral Preprocessing and Calibration -- Smoothing -- Centering -- Multiplicative Scatter Correction -- Standard Normal Variate -- Detrending -- Derivative Correction -- Wavelet Transformation -- Orthogonal Signal Correction.

3.2 Feature and Band Extraction and Sample Selection -- 3.2.1 Image Processing and Feature Extraction -- Morphological Image Processing -- Erosion -- Dilation -- The Fourier Transform -- 3.2.2 Dimensionality Reduction and Feature Band Selection -- Genetic Algorithms (GA) -- Successive Projection Algorithm (SPA) -- Uninformative Variable Elimination (UVE) -- Interval Selection Method -- 3.2.3 Calibration Samples Selection -- Random Sampling (RS) -- Kennard-Stone (KS) -- Sample Set Partitioning Based on Joint X-Y Distances (SPXY) -- 3.3 Analysis Models and Evaluation -- 3.3.1 Calibration Methods -- Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) -- Principal Component Regression (PCR) -- Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) -- Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) -- 3.3.2 Model Evaluation -- 4 Quality and Safety Assessment of Vegetable Products -- 4.1 Assessment of External Quality -- 4.1.1 Shape and Size -- 4.1.2 Color and Texture -- 4.1.3 Defects -- 4.2 Detection of Internal Quality -- 4.2.1 Tomatoes (Tomato Paste/Juice and Tomato Puree) -- 4.2.2 Carrots -- 4.2.3 Pickling Cucumbers -- 4.2.4 Bell Peppers -- 4.2.5 Beet -- 4.2.6 Potatoes (Potato Chips and Potato Granules) -- 4.2.7 Onions -- 4.3 Inspection of Microbiological Changes -- 4.3.1 Microbial Contamination -- 4.3.2 Fecal Contamination -- 5 Conclusions -- References -- Quantifying Human Health Risks Associated with Microbiological Contamination of Fresh Vegetables -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Knowledge Gaps -- 3 Discrete Population Scale Risk Assessment -- 4 The Gap Between Baseline Prevalence and Outbreaks -- 5 Conclusions -- References -- Quantitative Approaches for Microbial Risk Management in the Vegetable Industry: Case-Studies of Application of Food Safety Ob... -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Introduction to Risk-Based Metrics: Food Safety Objective (FSO) Framework and Related Metrics.

3 Integration of Quantitative Models into FSO-Based Microbial Risk Management Systems -- 3.1 From the ALOP to the FSO -- 3.2 Determination of PO -- 4 Application of Risk-Based Metrics for Developing Food Safety Recommendations and Microbiological Criteria -- 4.1 Food Safety Control Measures: From PC to Process and Product Criteria -- 4.2 Risk-Based Microbiological Criteria -- 5 Case-Studies of Application of Risk-Based Metrics in the Vegetable Industry: A Quantitative Approach from Harvest to Fork -- 5.1 Determining PO for Irrigation Water -- 5.2 Determining PC for Sanitized Washing -- 5.3 Determining POs for Raw Ingredients of a Ready-to-Eat Salad -- 6 Conclusion -- References -- Optimal Packaging Design and Innovative Packaging Technologies for Minimally Processed Fresh Produce -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Quality and Safety Factors of Packed Fresh Produce -- 2.1 Physiological Processes -- 2.2 Microbiological Processes -- 3 State-of-the-Art Methods for Preserving Minimally Processed Vegetables Through Packaging -- 3.1 Concept of Equilibrium Modified Atmosphere: Principle, Ideal Gas Concentrations -- 3.2 Super Atmospheric Oxygen Packaging: Principle, Advantages and Drawbacks -- 4 Packaging Materials and Packaging Design -- 4.1 Permeability of Packaging Material -- 4.2 Methods to Quantify the Respiration Rate of Minimally Processed Vegetables -- 4.3 Packaging Design: Matching Respiration Rate with Permeability -- 5 Low Barrier Technology for EMAP Vegetables -- 5.1 Composition of the Film -- 5.2 Open or Porous Structures in Packaging Materials, Such as Inorganic Fillers, Porous Patch, and Microperforations -- 6 Filling Systems for Minimally Processed Vegetables -- References -- Ensuring Fresh Produce Safety and Quality by Utilizing Predictive Growth Models and Predictive Microbiology Software Tools -- 1 Fresh Produce Contamination with Pathogenic Bacteria.

2 How Do Bacterial Pathogens Respond on Fresh Produce?.