Low temperature sanitization of human pathogens from the surfaces of food and food packaging

Abstract

Almonds, other nuts, grains, dried or dehydrated fruits or vegetables, and other agricultural foodstuffs resting on a porous mesh conveyor belt (22, 54) pass continuously through a chamber (20, 60) in which they are contacted by a gaseous oxidizing agent at atmospheric pressure as the conveyor belt and food products move continuously through the chamber. In one embodiment, the chamber is disposed through a barrier (56) which isolates a raw product receiving region from downstream processing facilities to prevent cross-contamination downstream. In another embodiment, the chamber (20) is disposed through a barrier (34) which separates a husker (14) from a downstream Sheller (40) such that the shells are sanitized prior to releasing the nutmeats from the shells. In the preferred embodiment, the gaseous oxidizing agent is hydrogen peroxide at a 1.8 mg / liter concentration which flows up through the belt vibrating the food products without scarring them as the belt conveys the food products through the chamber for a duration of about 15 seconds to achieve a 3 log reduction in human pathogens.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a method for killing microorganisms on food without reducing the quality of the food. The present invention is particularly suitable for the disinfection of almonds, and will be described in detail by taking this as an example. It will of course be understood that the present invention is also applicable to the disinfection of other types of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and other crop products. Background technique [0002] To promote the growth of crop products, fertilizers are usually applied to the soil. Manure, commonly used as fertilizer, can harbor human pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. Human pathogens can be carried on the surface of the fruit when the fruit comes into contact with the soil, or tools that have been in contact with the soil, during harvesting. Due to the concentration of harvested fruit, pathogens can infect each other through direct contact between fruit surfaces. [0003] For exampl...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0006] Although the above method is effective, this batch processing technology is not suitable for modern processing plants, where each processing line processes about 10,000 kg or more of food per hour

Images