New contamination control technologies ready to clean up market
01/01/2001
Food safety
Hank Hogan
PALO ALTO, CA—Plagued by recurring national headlines sounding failed contamination control practices, food producers, now more than ever before, are looking for new ways to make certain that their offerings are as pathogen- and contaminant-free as possible.
In an effort to boost the food industry's contamination conrol efforts, an array of new technologies are about to enter the market, including ozone generators to eliminate microorganisms in meat, electrostatic dust busters for healthier chickens and peroxyacetic acid sprays to decontaminate carcasses.
Ozone, the three-molecule version of oxygen, destroys pathogens at parts per million levels in both air and water. The gas dissipates quickly and can be produced by applying electricity.
"You dry the air, and you put a spark through it like a lightning distribution... It's that oxidation the does the job for you," says Charles Sopher, director of the agriculture and food technology alliance at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI; Palo Alto, CA).
Although used extensively outside the United States, ozone has not been approved as a food additive by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In mid-August, EPRI submitted a petition to the FDA in an effort to change its thinking. The agency is reviewing the data on a fast track, with approval expected no later than February.
Chickens don't produce ozone, but they do create dust and other particles. In commercial production, as many as 15,000 chicks greet the world in a hatching cabinet the size of a walk-in closet. The air in the cabinet is full of fine feathers and dust making contamination control difficult; however, it's necessary that the producer reduce airborne pathogens.
Conventional filtration technology quickly bogs down under these circumstances, so researcher Bailey Mitchell of the U.S. Department of Agriculture worked on an electrostatic-based system. In conjunction with a commercial company, Bailey developed an electrostatic generator with the needed characteristics.
"It puts out a very high electrostatic charge into the cabinet, and it's specifically for getting high charge levels in an enclosed space," he says.
Tests have shown this approach reduces airborne pathogens by 95 percent. The USDA licensed the technology to BioIon Inc. (Dallas) for commercial development. The technique could be applied wherever there's airborne dust, smoke or contaminants.
Ecolab Inc. (St. Paul, MN) is hoping to clean up by replacing the industry standard beef carcass antimicrobial sprays, with lactic or acetic acid, with one based on peroxyacetic acid. The company's peroxyacetic product, Inspexx 200, recently won FDA approval. Peroxyacetic acid is effective at concentrations 100 times lower than the other treatments and doesn't contaminate.
Richard Higby, senior marketing manager for the meat and poultry, food and beverage division at Ecolab, says it "...Breaks down to water, oxygen and acetic acid, so there are no residues that are unnatural to the carcass."
The Excel Corp. (Witchita, KS) has exclusive rights to the spray until the middle of next year, and after that it will be available industry wide.