Scientists in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, have developed an antimicrobial wash for fruit and vegetables, which can reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens contaminating fresh produce in food processing operations.
Joshua Gurtler, an Agricultural Research Service scientist at the Eastern Regional Research Center and his collaborators at NatureSeal, Inc., tested hundreds of antimicrobial formulations before they found the right combination of lactic acid, fruit acids, and hydrogen peroxide.
First Step+ 10 is designed to reduce the numbers of those sickened and killed by food-borne pathogens. It is expected to be used in flumes and rinse tanks to wash fresh produce. Several NatureSeal constituent processors have already expressed an interest in using it, Gurtler says.
Along with recently securing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Gurtler and NatureSeal have filed a patent application and presented findings at scientific meetings.
To test the winning formula, Gurtler inoculated fresh-cut apples, baby spinach, cantaloupe rind, and cherry tomatoes with highly resistant outbreak strains of E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. He soaked them in the wash and then measured pathogen levels in the wash water and on the produce. The antimicrobial wash reduced pathogen levels on the produce up to 99.99 percent.It also rid the wash water of 100 percent of the pathogens, making it safer to reuse.
The wash can be shipped in concentrated form. Specific concentrations and treatment time used in a wash cycle will depend on the produce being treated and other factors, Gurtler says. But it will cut back on water waste because processors won’t have to replace water in their tanks as often.
The wash ingredients are all classified as Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA. The wash has also been approved for use in Canada; is USDA listed for organic use; is biodegradable; can be used with flume tanks and other industrial food processing equipment; and does not affect the taste, texture, smell, or appearance of produce.
The antimicrobial wash is one of two recently developed by ARS scientists. The other wash (AgResearch, September 2015) has different ingredients and is intended to minimize the risk of harmful bacteria in fresh-cut produce.
Source: agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov