Table Salt: Green Concept of Fresh Produce Sanitation

Over the past few years, food safety has become and continues to be the number one public concern as the reports of foodborne outbreaks are increasing over year. The centre of disease control and prevention, USA has reported that there are 31 pathogens and unknown agents which cause illness in humans. Contamination in
food and agriculture products may occur at any stage of the food supply chain from field to the table. The increase in consumption of minimally processed, fresh-cut, fruits and vegetables in recent years has been parallel to an increase in the number of foodborne illness attributed these produce.

Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium botulinum and other emerging foodborne pathogens associated with the fresh produce, which poses a high health risk and requires an effective control /decontamination techniques to ensure food safety to the consumer

method. So to achieve this, the food industry has employed a number of decontamination techniques including both physical and chemical methods. However, the existing decontamination technique poses many disadvantages like the highcost, low efficiency, adverse effects on the quality of the food products and remaining of chemical residues. The chlorine-based sanitizers,

liquid chlorine and sodium hypochlorite are widely used sanitizer for fruits and vegetables. But these chemicals have drawbacks for its

application in the food industry as they produce chlorinated organic compounds like chloramines and triatomines, which are carcinogenic in nature and cause respiratory tract and skin irritation on prolonged exposure. So to overcome the drawbacks of these traditional decontamination techniques the recent discovery sought to be the promising alternative is the possibility of using the electrolyzed water.

Electrolyzed water (EW) is a solution developed from regular water without the addition of any harmful chemical except NaCl or dil. HCl. It has been regarded as the non-thermal technology and widely used as sanitizer and cleaner. The popularity of the EW is mainly due to its simplicity of application and production. It has a wide range of antimicrobial activity against vast microbes and eliminates all pathogens in few seconds (5 to 20sec). According to World Health Organization (WHO), electrolyzed water is the most efficient non-toxic disinfectant known today.

Electrolyzed water has found its various applications in agriculture, food sanitation, medical sterilization, antimicrobial techniques and

livestock management. Overtime its use has broadened to

various purposes. In postharvest management of fruits and vegetables, its utility is found as follows:
  • It is used as disinfectant for equipment in processing industry
  • It doesn’t have adverse effect on the environment as it does not contain any toxic chemical residues, hence it can be used to
  • wash fresh fruits and vegetables
  • It inactivates pathogen on fresh produce
  • It extends shelf life of fresh, pre-cut fruits and vegetables
  • Eliminates pesticide residues, mycotoxins and reduce rate of germination of certain fungal spores.
The sanitation of produce is a very important step in ensuring its quality and safety. A variety of disinfectants like liquid chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, sodium bisulphite and organic acids are commonly used to reduce the microbial population on fresh-cut vegetables but these pose some potential toxicity and incapable to
completely eliminate the pathogens. Neutral electrolyzed water is the promising disinfection method to wash fresh cut lettuce, carrot, endive and corn salad containing about 50 ppm of chlorine and equally effective as chlorinated water at 120 ppm. Thus electrolyzed water would allow reducing the amount of free chlorine used and
could be safer to wash fresh-cut produce. The food spoilage causing organism like Salmonella, L. innocu and E. caratovora on minimally
processed vegetables can be effectively reduced by electrolyzed water.

Pesticide residue in food is the main concern of food safety as pesticides are biologically active and highly toxic even at very low concentration. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the major food

source for pesticide exposure. Washing solution added with strong oxidizing agents like ozone and chlorine dioxide effectively remove the pesticide residues from produce samples. Therefore, electrolyzed water with dissolved chlorine could be used to degrade pesticides residues from fresh produce.
PROS AND CONS OF THE TECHNOLOGY
  • Electrolyzed water when comes in contact with organic acids or tap water becomes normal water again, hence there is no residual effect and safer to use
  • It has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity
  • It is less expensive and have more power at 50 mg/L than available chlorine at 120 mg/L
  • It is more economical as it is produced on demand on-site reducing the cost of bottling and transportation
  • It not only sanitizes fruit and vegetables, it also prolongs its shelf life thereby electrolyzed water is more ecological approach by food industries
  • The initial cost of the equipment is very high
  • Losses its antimicrobial activity very soon if not supplied continuously with hypochlorous acid/chlorine or due to improper storage condition.
  • It causes discomfort to the operator due to presence of chlorine gas when operated below pH 5.
Owing to the concern on food safety and prevailing food-borne illness ecological and cost-effective disinfectant method is required. Electrolyzed water exhibits strong bactericidal, fungicidal effect on fruits and vegetables. Therefore, it seems to be an alternative to available disinfectants for microbial control, removal of pesticide residue, although, its potential need to be explored. Now the expensive chemical for sanitization of fresh fruits and vegetables can be replaced at the price of table salt.

By: Dr. Bhawana Asnani.

Happy to see Reviews, Additions, Suggestions and Comments, further.

About Asnani Bhawana 287 Articles
Assistant Professor, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat

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