Sanitation efficacy of prewashing with acidified sodium chlorite (ASC) for the production of lightly fermented Chinese cabbage was evaluated. The treatment of raw cut Chinese cabbage with ASC for 15 min significantly reduced the level of pathogens without causing apparent changes in color. The population of natural microflora on the leaves was reduced by about 2.0 log CFU/g just after washing with ASC, which is significantly better than what was achieved with a control distilled water wash (P ? 0.05). In a control experiment, viable aerobic bacteria increased gradually when incubated at 10°C, however, ASC washed cut Chinese cabbage maintained a lower microbial level. The treatment of cut Chinese cabbage with ASC reduced the population of artificially inoculated Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes by 2.4 log CFU/g. The sanitation efficacy of ASC was 1.6 log CFU/g higher than that of distilled water washing. The viable cell counts of all pathogenic bacteria tested remained constant during 8 days of storage at 10°C for both washing treatments with the exception of L. monocytogenes. In the case of L. monocytogenes, the viable cell counts after ASC washing treatment increased gradually with time. No significant difference in color, odor, taste, and texture change in raw leaves or fermented ones was observed with an ASC wash compared to a distilled water wash. These results suggested that prewashing with ASC could control the bacterial growth in lightly fermented Chinese cabbage without changing its quality.