Academic Journal
Ozone and non-thermal plasma as sustainable alternatives to chlorine for decontamination of alfalfa seeds and sprouts.
| Τίτλος: | Ozone and non-thermal plasma as sustainable alternatives to chlorine for decontamination of alfalfa seeds and sprouts. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Ali MG; Department of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha, Egypt., Abdelhamid AG; Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA., Yousef AE; Department of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. Electronic address: yousef.1@osu.edu. |
| Πηγή: | Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.) [Food Res Int] 2026 Jun 01; Vol. 233 (Pt 1), pp. 118928. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Mar 11. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Published on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology by Elsevier Applied Science Country of Publication: Canada NLM ID: 9210143 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-7145 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 09639969 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Food Res Int Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada : Published on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology by Elsevier Applied Science, c1992- |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Medicago sativa*/microbiology , Medicago sativa*/drug effects , Chlorine*/pharmacology , Seeds*/microbiology , Seeds*/drug effects , Ozone*/pharmacology , Decontamination*/methods , Plasma Gases*/pharmacology, Calcium Compounds/pharmacology ; Food Microbiology/methods ; Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli/drug effects ; Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli/growth & development ; Disinfectants/pharmacology ; Food Contamination/prevention & control ; Colony Count, Microbial |
| Περίληψη: | Multiple foodborne disease outbreaks were linked to contamination of alfalfa sprouts with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), with seeds identified as the primary contamination source. These outbreaks highlight the need for effective and sustainable approaches for seed and sprout decontamination. In this study, alfalfa seeds were inoculated with STEC at high (∼106 CFU/g) or low (∼103 CFU/g) inoculum, and treated with aqueous ozone (5 ppm), non-thermal plasma (NTP; dry or in water mist), or calcium hypochlorite (20,000 ppm) for ≤15 min. At the high STEC inoculum, modest and comparable inactivation (1.1-1.7 log CFU/g reduction; p > 0.05) resulted from the 15-min treatments. In comparison, larger STEC inactivation (1.6-3.7 log CFU/g reduction) was observed at the lower inoculum, but inactivation magnitude depended on the antimicrobial treatment. Freshly prepared sprouts were similarly inoculated and treated for ≤15 min with aqueous ozone (5 ppm), NTP (dry or in mist), or calcium hypochlorite (50 ppm). The mild 2-min treatments were more effective at low (1.0-3.2 log CFU/g reduction) than at high (0.5-1.6 log CFU/g reduction) inoculum. None of these treatments adversely affected the quality of seeds or sprouts (p > 0.05). In conclusion, ozone, NTP, and chlorine reduced high STEC contamination on alfalfa seeds and sprouts to comparable levels, but chlorine outperformed ozone and NTP when the products received low STEC inocula before treatment. The expected minimal environmental and health impact of these chlorine-alternative technologies favors their future use, provided they are successfully optimized and validated at large-scale before implementation. (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Alfalfa; Chlorine; Decontamination; Non-thermal plasma; Ozone; STEC; Seeds; Sprouts |
| Substance Nomenclature: | 4R7X1O2820 (Chlorine) 66H7ZZK23N (Ozone) 0 (Calcium Compounds) 11DXB629VZ (calcium hypochlorite) 0 (Plasma Gases) 0 (Disinfectants) |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260406 Date Completed: 20260714 Latest Revision: 20260714 |
| Update Code: | 20260715 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.118928 |
| PMID: | 41942193 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1873-7145 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.118928 |