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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Sep 1;18(9):e0290447.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290447. eCollection 2023.

Effectiveness of sanitization protocols in removing or reducing parasites from vegetables: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Cláudio Márcio de Medeiros Maia  1 , Karla Suzanne Florentino da Silva Chaves Damasceno  1 , Larissa Mont'Alverne Jucá Seabra  1 , Gabriela Chaves  2 , Lívia Maria da Costa Dantas  3 , Francisco Canindé de Sousa Júnior  1   3 , Cristiane Fernandes de Assis  1   3
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Effectiveness of sanitization protocols in removing or reducing parasites from vegetables: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Cláudio Márcio de Medeiros Maia et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Parasitic contamination in vegetables is a reality in several countries and a challenge for food safety. The risk of consumption usually raw, associated with failures in good practices of production, transportation, and preparation further increase the possibility of ingesting contaminated food. Given this, a systematic review was carried out to scientifically demonstrate the effectiveness of sanitization protocols in the parasitic decontamination of plants.

Methods: This review was conducted following the guidelines of the Cochrane Manual, being registered in the PROSPERO protocol base (CRD42020206929) and reported according to the PRISMA 2020 statement. The review evaluated studies published in the MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, FSTA, LILACS, and AGRIS databases, as well as manual searches of related articles, references, and theses and dissertations directories. The meta-analysis was performed using the Revman 5 software program, the bias assessment used the Robins I Tools with some adaptations, and the quality of the evidence was evaluated using GRADE.

Discussion: The review included a total of 31 studies, most of which were carried out in countries with a high incidence of plant parasites, such as Brazil and Iran. Interventions combined with 200ppm chlorination preceded by brushing, rinsing, or immersion in detergent showed the greatest efficiency in parasitic decontamination. Despite the high heterogeneity and risk of bias in the primary studies, this review can inspire the planning of new studies which observe the critical and methodological evaluation for research in the field of food safety.

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Conflict of interest statement

NO authors have competing interests.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Prisma 2020 flowchart.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Percentage of the main foods searched.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Percentage of intervention processes applied.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Overall graph of the bias assessment of the included studies.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Meta-analyses of studies by the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) method.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Meta-analyses of inverse variance studies (IV).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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