Advances in Microbiology, 2015, 5, 425-432 Published Online June 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/aim http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aim.2015.56043 How to cite this paper: Ben Romdhane, I., Saidi, N., Deshaware, S. and Shamekh, S. (2015) Sanitizing Method Effects on Depending-Culture Microorganisms in Tuber aestivium. Advances in Microbiology, 5, 425-432. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aim.2015.56043 Sanitizing Method Effects on Depending-Culture Microorganisms in Tuber aestivium Ilef Ben Romdhane 1 , Neila Saidi 1* , Shweta Deshaware 2 , Salem Shamekh 3,4 1 Laboratory of Treatment and Water Recycling Centre of Research and Water Technologies (CERTE) Technopark of Borj-Cedria, Soliman, Tunisia 2 Food Engineering and Technology Department, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India 3 Department of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland 4 Juva Truffle Center, Juva, Finland Email: * neila_saidi@yahoo.fr Received 15 May 2015; accepted 15 June 2015; published 19 June 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Tuber aestivum/uncinatum has been widely used as food, food additives, and traditional medicine. Truffles are extremely perishable with a short postharvest life quality requiring a special handling for marketing in order to delay its deterioration. This study aimed to assess the effects of different sanitizing methods on superficial Tuber aestivium quality ascocarp. The results showed that the best treatment was obtained by immersing the Truffle ascocarps in boiling water for 1 or 2 min where counts of total mesophilic microoraganisms (TMM) were respectively 81 and 7 CFU per g of dry Truffle ascocarps biomass, respectively. However, the highest TMM was obtained after rinsing Truffle ascocarps in 2% NaOH where recovery was 10 8 CFU per g of dry Truffle ascocarps biomass. Treatments applied to disinfect Truffle ascocarps were classified by increasing degree of efficien- cy as follows to reduce the microbial load expressed in CFU/g: Dipping in boiling water (2 min) 7 ± 3.41; dipping in boiling water (1 min) 81 ± 25.8, rinsing with alcohol 2.10 2 ± 13; rinsing with tap water 6.10 3 ± 36; rinsing with H2O2 6.10 4 ± 2; brushing 2.10 5 ± 28 and rinsing with NaOH 10 8 ± 15. Keywords Tuber aestivium Ascocarps, Total Count Mesophilic Bacteria, Molds and Yeast Decontamination * Corresponding author.