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Read the
magazine
story to find out more. Scientists
Study Better Ways to Sanitize Fruit and VegetablesBy Jim Core March 11, 2002Agricultural Research Service scientists in
Wyndmoor, Pa., are studying commercial-type washing and sanitizing equipment
that could do a better job of reducing bacterial populations on fruit and
vegetable surfaces. The washing and sanitizing equipment is located within a containment chamber
inside a unique Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) pilot plant at the ARS Eastern
Regional Research Center (ERRC) in
Wyndmoor. The plant will be used to improve conventional produce-cleaning
methods and to develop new approaches for removing or inactivating human
pathogens associated with fresh produce, according to food technologist Gerald
M. Sapers and microbiologist Bassam A. Annous. They work at ERRCs
Food Safety Intervention Technologies
Research Unit. The washing equipment and a small-scale prototype of the containment chamber
were designed, built and validated by a collaborating team of scientists and
engineers from Pennsylvania State Universityand ERRC. Early tests with the new system were very successful. Chlorine and other produce sanitizers used by packinghouses to reduce
microbial levels are not able to penetrate the crevices in produce skin. Sapers
and his team are developing and evaluating new, commercial-type processes for
decontaminating fresh and minimally-processed fruits and vegetables. Effective
technology can then be transferred to produce packing and processing
industries. New washing and sanitizing treatments are developed in the laboratory before
being tested in the pilot plant. For example, experimental hydrogen peroxide
and hot water treatments have been applied to apples in a dip tank at different
temperatures. Temperatures exceeding 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees
Fahrenheit) could not be used without causing discoloration. Other experimental methods being studied include steam treatments, applying
sanitizing solutions under vacuum, treating inoculated apples and other produce
with antimicrobial vapors and using an abrasive paste to grind pathogens off
produce. A more detailed story on this research is available in the
March issue of
Agricultural Research magazine, available on the World Wide Web. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. Story contacts Food Safety Intervention Technologies Research U.S. Department of Agriculture |