## 3 Results and Discussion
### Evaluation of the Total Viable Count in Raw Peppers and Culinary Products During Storage  
Table 2 shows the results of the total viable count (TVC) for the raw peppers and culinary peppers packaged in an unaltered atmosphere (ATM), vacuum (VAC), and modified gas atmosphere (MAP). In the raw peppers, on the first day of the experiment, the TVC ranged from 3.54 to 3.86 log CFU/g and did not significantly depend on the packaging method (\(p\) > 0.05). During the storage of the culinary products, except 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the method of packaging and storage time had a significant effect (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.05) on the total bacterial count. Following the rule of thumb described in the materials and methods section, the maximum storage time for the ATM and VAC raw peppers was 3 days and MAP raw peppers 6 days. The total number of microorganisms in the mentioned samples on the last day of storage did not exceed 4 log CFU/g, respectively: 3.98 log CFU/g; 3.99 log CFU/g; and 3.69 log CFU/g. The results on TVC microorganisms obtained in our own work correspond with the work of [PERSON] et al. [32], who estimated the initial microbial status of sliced green peppers to be 3.36 \(\pm\) 0.1 log CFU/g, and observed a sharp increase in microbial contamination to 4.88 \(\pm\) 0.05 log CFU/g on day 6 of refrigerated storage (8 \(\pm\) 1 \({}^{\circ}\)C). A study by [PERSON] et al. [33] also showed a significant increase in the aerobic bacterial population of green peppers during the 6-day refrigerated storage period, from 3.38 \(\pm\) 0.62 log CFU/g on day 1 to 5.28 \(\pm\) 0.51 log CFU/g on day 6.  
The sous vide 30 min/60 \({}^{\circ}\)C heat treatment for all the packaging methods resulted in a significant (\(p\) = 0.013) reduction in the TVC bacteria counts compared to the raw peppers. On the first day of storage of the ATM- and VAC-packaged culinary products, no TVC bacteria were observed or their number was below the limit of the detection threshold (1 log CFU/g), and in the MAP-packaged peppers, the microbial count was 2.69 log CFU/g. In the test facilities, no exceedance of the safe limit of bacteria (4 log CFU/g) was observed during the entire storage period of 24 days, and the highest abundance of TVC was observed on the 18 th day of storage in the MAP-packed products and their number was 3.15 log CFU/g.  
For the 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C peppers, the packaging method and storage time did not significantly affect the microbial counts (\(p\) = 0.102). On the first day of storage for the 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C ATM and 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C VAC peppers, the TVC was below the limit of the detection threshold (<1 log CFU/g), while for the 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C MAP peppers, the number of microorganisms was 3.20 log CFU/g. Throughout the storage period of the 15 min/70 \({}^{\circ}\)C peppers, the number of TVC for all the packaging methods did not exceed the set limit (4 log CFU/g). The effect of the sous vide method on TVC was also checked by [PERSON] et al. [34]. They carried out microbiological analyses of steamed and sous vide (100 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 20 min) cooked carrots and showed that both groups of carrots showed microbial countsthat were always below 1 log colony forming units per gram (CFU/g), even after 10 days of storage at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C, while the microbial status of the raw was 4.34 log CFU/g. Therefore, both heat treatments seemed to reduce the initial microbial count effectively.  
In order to reduce the number of bacteria in the sous vide and VAC- and MAP-packaged products, some authors propose the use of different types of essential oils that have a positive effect on the reduction and growth of bacteria during fruit and vegetable storage, for example, _S. enterica_ and _L. monocytogenes_[35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40].