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Title
Abstract
Sprouted seeds, both commercially available and home-sprouted, are a popular product of high nutritive value. However, they are characterised by relatively high levels of microbial contamination. The objective of this paper was to determine the effect of black and green tea infusions applied during the sprout production process on the microbial contamination level and the content of some selected bioactive components, as well as on the growth rate of sprouts being produced. The infusions were applied to soak seeds prior to sprouting or to water seed crops during the growth of sprouts. It was found that the soaking of seeds in the green tea infusion, as well as the watering of sprouting seeds and growing sprouts with the infusions of those two tea types negatively affected the product yield obtained and caused the chlorophyll content in the cotyledon to slightly decrease. However, the soaking of seeds in the black tea infusion did not significantly impact those values. Compared to the control sample, the infusions used caused the polyphenol content and the indicator of antioxidant activity (reducing power) to increase. In all the modified methods of producing sprouts, the total viable count of bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, and Enterobacteriaceae family bacteria were reduced by less than 1 log cycle. The tea infusions applied caused, however, the quantity of detectable moulds to slightly increase.
Keywords
small radish sprouts, tea, microbiological contamination, sprouting process