Abstract

The application of chemical disinfectants in postharvest food processing facilities is important for the control of foodborne pathogen outbreaks. Similar to drinking water disinfection, food processors will need to optimize disinfectant exposures to balance pathogen inactivation against exposure to potentially toxic disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Since most disinfection research has focused on drinking water, this review summarizes research related to disinfection in food washing facilities, particularly by chlorination and ozonation. Although these disinfectants are also used for drinking water, the conditions are significantly different at food processing facilities. After a brief summary of foodborne pathogen outbreaks, this review describes food processing treatment trains, particularly the critical differences in conditions encountered relative to drinking water disinfection (e.g., short disinfectant contact times and high and variable disinfectant demands). The review discusses research related to pathogen inactivation and DBP formation by chlorine and ozone during washing of produce, meat and seafood. In particular, the research highlights the difficulty of inactivating pathogens on food, but the efficacy of these disinfectants for controlling pathogen cross-contamination through the washwater. While most research on food-associated DBPs has focused on the same, low molecular weight DBPs of interest in drinking water, these DBPs partition to the washwater. This review highlights the need for research on the initial transformation products of disinfectant reactions with biomolecules, since these products may present a risk for consumer exposure by remaining within the food.

摘要

在采后食品加工设施中使用化学消毒剂对于控制食源性病原体爆发很重要。与饮用水消毒类似，食品加工商需要优化消毒剂的暴露量，以平衡病原体灭活与暴露于潜在有毒的消毒副产物 (DBP) 之间的关系。由于大多数消毒研究都集中在饮用水上，因此本综述总结了与食品清洗设施消毒相关的研究，特别是氯化和臭氧消毒。尽管这些消毒剂也用于饮用水，但食品加工设施的条件却大不相同。在简要总结食源性病原体爆发后，本综述描述了食品加工处理系列，尤其是与饮用水消毒相关的条件的关键差异（例如，消毒剂接触时间短，消毒剂需求量大且多变）。这篇综述讨论了在清洗农产品、肉类和海鲜的过程中，氯和臭氧对病原体灭活和 DBP 形成的研究。特别是，该研究强调了灭活食物上的病原体的难度，但这些消毒剂在控制通过洗涤水的病原体交叉污染方面的功效。虽然大多数关于食品相关 DBP 的研究都集中在饮用水中感兴趣的相同的低分子量 DBP，但这些 DBP 分配到了洗涤水中。这篇综述强调了对消毒剂与生物分子反应的初始转化产物进行研究的必要性，