## 3 Results and Discussion
### Total Aerobic Mesophilic Viable Count of Endive Lettuce along the Washing Process Chain
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c c c c c|c c c|} \hline  & **[A] Washing with** & **[B] Washing with** & **[C] Washing with** & **[D] Washing with** & **[E] Washing with** & **[F] Washing with PTW in Pre-Bath** \\  & **Wafers and Pre-Bath** & **PTW in Pre-Rishing** & **PTW in Pre-Rishing** & **PTW in Pre-Rishing** & **PTW in Pre-Rath** & **PTW in Second** & **(S10) in Pre-Rishing (0.03 and in (S0) dcf/up)** & **(0.04 cf/up)** & **(0.03 cf/up)** & **(0.04 cf/up)** \\ \hline
**[1] Endow raw material** & 7.70 \(\pm\) 0.12 & 7.54 \(\pm\) 0.18 & 7.53 \(\pm\) 0.21 & 7.66 \(\pm\) 0.15 & 7.85 \(\pm\) 0.09 & 7.74 \(\pm\) 0.13 \\
**[2] Endow after pre-bath** & 6.77 \(\pm\) 0.09 &.nd. & nd. & 5.58\(\pm\) 0.49 & n.d. & 6.85\(\pm\) 0.05 \\
**[3] Endow after pre-priming** & 7.22 \(\pm\) 0.10 & 6.19 \(\pm\) 0.28 & 5.16 \(\pm\) 0.23 & 5.99 \(\pm\) 0.13 & 7.07 \(\pm\) 0.16 & 7.18 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\
**[4] Endow after first raw** & 7.40 \(\pm\) 0.12 & n.d. & n.d. & 6.34 \(\pm\) 0.35 & 7.06 \(\pm\) 0.08 & 7.28 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\
**[5] Endow after second wash** & 6.82 \(\pm\) 0.10 & n.d. & n.d. & 5.54 \(\pm\) 0.29 & 5.43 \(\pm\) 0.12 & 5.43 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\
**[6] Endow after final missing** & 6.32 \(\pm\) 0.16 & 6.80 \(\pm\) 0.12 & 6.69 \(\pm\) 0.36 & 6.00\(\pm\) 0.31 & 6.57 \(\pm\) 0.09 & 6.64\(\pm\) 0.50 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Total viable count on enolive lettuce after washing with or without the addition of plasma-treated water (PTW) at different processing steps. Letters and numbers in square brackets refer to the six trials and six sampling points, respectively, described in Section 2.2. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline  & **[A] Washing with** & **[B] Washing with** & **[C] Washing with** & **[D] Washing with** & **[E] Washing with** & **[F] Washing with PTW in Pre-Bath** \\  & **Wafers and Pre-Bath** & **PTW in Pre-Rishing** & **PTW in Pre-R  
After storage at 2 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the TVC of all samples increased again, but the TVC of the washed endive lettuce was significantly lower than the TVC of the stored endive raw material with the exception of trials C and E, where no significant differences could be detected (Table 2). In contrast to the analyses after processing, the highest reduction was achieved for trial F. However, this reduction was not significantly different from the reduction obtained in trial A (water only). All other treatments with PTW showed a significantly lower reduction in comparison to the washing with water only (trial A Table 3). Taking a closer look at the endive lettuce sampled at the point of PTW addition, a varying reduction was achieved for the different experimental trials (Table 1). Dipping of whole endive lettuce in the PTW pre-bath for 180 s led to a reduction of 1.8 log units in trial D, whereas the dipping of whole lettuce into PTW pre-bath for 180 s in trial F only led to a reduction of 0.9 log units. Highest reduction of the TVC was achieved for the endive lettuce directly after 30 s of pre-rinsing with PTW (trial C 2.4 log units), but a reduction of only 0.6 log units was obtained at the same sampling point at trial H Sampling of endive lettuce after the second wash with PTW led to similar reductions in trial E and trial F with 2.2 log units and 2.3 log units, respectively. Trial B (10 s of pre-rinsing with PTW) led to a reduction of 1.4 log units on endive lettuce sampled at the point of PTW addition. The corresponding stored endive lettuce showed significantly lower TVC values than the stored endive raw material (Table 2). The effectiveness of PTW for the reduction of TVC on endive lettuce was different depending on the processing step of PTW application, and was associated with the PTW application time The dependence of the microbial inactivation on the application time of plasma-activated water was also found for strawberries by [PERSON] et al. [13] and button mushrooms by [PERSON] et al. [15].