July 11, 2012

Compared to present sanitation procedures, there is greater effectiveness with electrostatic spraying using organic acids in protecting fresh produce against E.coli, stated a new study published in the Journal of Food Science.

For the research, the study authors evaluated the theory that electrostatic spraying done to evenly distribute natural antimicrobials could be an effective solution to combat E.coli. They electrostatically sprayed malic acid, lactic acid and grape seed extract on fresh produce.

Over a 14-day storage period, the electrostatic spaying technique had the greatest decontaminating effect. While inorganic treatments demonstrated promising effects, these were lower in comparison and affected the colour of the produce, reported Foodproductiondaily.com.

Study author, Navam S Hettiarachchy said that although electrostatic spraying is currently used in agriculture for pesticide and fertiliser application, it is not commercially used for fresh produce sanitation.

"But this is an emerging technology to be used in food production and hopefully the food industry will use it," he added.

This study was conducted by Vijayalakshmi Ganesh, Navam S Hettiarachchy, Carl L. Griffis, Elizabeth M. Martin, and Steven C Ricke.