Effect of the combination of lactic acid, ε-poly-L-lysine and sodium isoascorbate on the swelling, microbiomics variation, and quality attributes of vacuum-packed fresh cut lotus root

Vacuum-packed lotus roots slices are prone to swelling and quality deterioration when stored above 15 °C. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of combined treatment of 0.7 % lactic acid (LA), 0.7 g L −1 ε-poly- L -lysine (ε-PL), and 0.3 % sodium isoascorbate (SI) solution on the swelling, microbial growth, antioxidant and quality characteristics of vacuum-packed lotus root slices stored at 20 °C for 6 d. Results showed that, the primary bacterial genera responsible for bag swelling were identified as Tolumonas , Aeromonas , and Enterobacter, utilizing 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing. Compared with the control, the LA + ε-PL + SI treatment exhibited inhibitory effect on these genera, reduced the relative abundance of Tolumonas , Aeromonas , and Enterobacter from 65.97 %, 13.20 %, and 3.85–1.07 %, 0.20 %, and 0.44 %, respectively, yielding suppression rates of 98.4 %, 98.5 %, and 88.6 %, thus, effectively preventing swelling. Moreover, lotus root treated with LA + ε-PL + SI showed the better color, quality attributes. These findings indicated that the LA + ε-PL + SI treatment successfully prevented swelling, inhibited microbial growth, prolonged the shelf life, and preserved the better quality of vacuum-packed fresh cut lotus root.