## 3 Results and Discussion
### Salmonella Populations during Storage  
_Salmonella_-inoculated wax gourd pieces treated with the combination of TP (1.0%) and TS (50 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 1 min) were stored at different temperatures. _Salmonella_ populations were monitored using plate count and shown in Figure 3.  
Before treatment, the initial _Salmonella_ levels were 6.80 \(\pm\) 0.04 log CFU/g, confirmed by plate count analysis. After treatment, the _Salmonella_ populations were reduced to about 4.58 \(\pm\) 0.08 log CFU/g. In other words, the combination of TP and TS treatment effectively reduced the population of _Salmonella_ in fresh-cut wax gourds by approximately 2.2 log CFU/g. When fresh-cut wax gourd was stored at 25 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the _Salmonella_ populations of the treated samples significantly increased within the first 4 days, reached a stationary  
Figure 3: _Salmonella_ populations (log CFU/g) in fresh-cut wax gourd during storage at different temperatures: 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C (**A**), 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C (**B**), and 25 \({}^{\circ}\)C (**C**), respectively. _Salmonella_ populations of treated samples (by TP and TS) were represented as (\(\bullet\)) and connected by solid line; _Salmonella_ populations of control samples (without treatments) were represented as (\(\blacktriangle\)) and connected by dashed line. Figure 2: Fluorescence microscopy images showing _Salmonella_ status of treated samples (1.5% TP combined with 3 min TS at 60 \({}^{\circ}\)C) and untreated samples. Hoechst 33,342 staining (blue) showed both live and dead bacterial cells, while PI staining (red) showed only dead bacterial cells. (**A**) an untreated sample stained with Hoechst 33,342, and (**B**) an untreated sample stained with PI. (**C**) TP and TS treated sample stained with Hoechst 33,342, (**D**) and the TP and TS treated sample stained with PI. phase from day 4 to 7, and then declined in the remaining days. The control samples showed similar trends but with a higher maximum of 7.4 log CFU/g on day 4 and an earlier stationary phase on days 2 to 4. When stored at 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the _Salmonella_ populations of the treated samples significantly decreased by about 0.4 log CFU/g within the first 24 h, declined slowly for the first 5 days, and then fluctuated around 4.0 log CFU/g for the rest of the days. The _Salmonella_ populations of control samples increased very slowly to a maximum of 4.7 log CFU/g and remained stable. When stored at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the populations of _Salmonella_ significantly declined within the first 7 days and fluctuated around 2.5 log CFU/g for the remaining days. The _Salmonella_ populations of the control samples significantly declined within the first 8 days and then remained stable at 3.5 log CFU/g. The fate of _Salmonella_ varied among different fruits and vegetables. To our knowledge, this is the first report to investigate the fate of _Salmonella_ in wax gourd. [PERSON] and [PERSON] 2010 reported the populations of _Salmonella_ in mango and papaya [43]. In mango, _Salmonella_ populations increased in the first few days and declined till the end of experiment at 25 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 12 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C. In papaya, _Salmonella_ populations increased first, remained for days, and declined at 25 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 12 \({}^{\circ}\)C, while being kept unchanged or declined though the experiment at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The results in dragon fruit were similar to papaya [35], although only data in the first 4 days were provided. [PERSON] et al.