Eliminating pathogens from veggies

[AlohaSteven]

Here is an interesting innovation, potentially practical for use by relatively small-scale farmer's market producers in Puna. Sounds like one might even be able to build the device oneself and use it even off the grid if set up with photovoltaic power.

Simple device can ensure food gets to the store bacteria free
by Brian Wallheimer at PhysOrg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news155230070.html

Excerpts:
A Purdue University researcher has found a way to eliminate bacteria in packaged foods such as spinach and tomatoes, a process that could eliminate worries concerning some food-borne illnesses....Kevin Keener designed a device consisting of a set of high-voltage coils attached to a small transformer that generates a room-temperature plasma field inside a package, ionizing the gases inside. The process kills harmful bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella...The process uses only 30-40 watts of electricity, less than most incandescent light bulbs. The outside of the container only increases a few degrees in temperature, so its contents are not cooked or otherwise altered...According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 40,000 cases of Salmonellosis, an infection caused by salmonella, are reported each year in the United States, causing 400 deaths. The CDC reports that about 70,000 E. coli infections are reported each year, causing dozens of deaths.


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A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

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[Kelena]

How about running it under a UV lamp?

[AlohaSteven]

How about running it under a UV lamp?

Effectiveness of UV as a surface sterilizer for produce would probably depend on several variables:
*wavelength of UV used (there are at least three commonly available and two of those three wavelengths are not very potent, while one is quite dangerous even to people if a person's eyes and skin are not shielded),
*wattage (low radiated wattage may not do much even with the most potent wavelength),
*expense (most high-wattage UV lamps are expensive and the electricity required to run them and their cooling fans is substantial),
*penetration (I am unsure how well UV would do at killing pathogens down inside leafy veggies, in the folds of bell peppers, and other such spaces), and finally
*labor and time involved (it would take someone in gloves and goggles exposing individual leaf surfaces to the UV source for a good thorough treatment).

Probably too expensive, laborious, and hit-or-miss with most applications, is my guess on UV for treating leafy veggies. UV sterilizers work great for killing microbes in water but that is a whole different application.

If this ionized gases approach works well, though, then a producer could fill a plastic barrel with leafy veggies, seal the barrel tightly with an airtight cover, switch on the device for awhile to raise the O3 level to some indicated point, let the barrel sit for a few hours, and voilà! Surface-cleansed veggies. Ozone is not something humans, pets, or farm animals want to be breathing but this potent gas should diffuse thoroughly throughout all of the airspaces --no matter how tiny-- in the barrel before breaking back down again.

I wonder how tiny slugs and the rat lungworm L3 larvae inside them (and occasionally shed in their slime trails) would hold up when exposed to ozone?


Edit in orange

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A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

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[Guest]

Simple, soapy water and rinse.
We don't want to eat everything totally sterile.

Our bodies also require enzymes and bacteria.
There are what some scientist call factor x. that we need but have not isolated yet. And may never.

Our bodies have an amazing ability to cope with toxins. In fact, if you invented a product and it had the exact same chemicals in it as Broccoli, The FDA would not permit you to sell it.
Because it would be classified as a carcinogen.
http://www.thesitrep.com/blog/2008/02/07...ut-toxins/

[Devany]

How about field workers washing their hands????

quote:

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Originally posted by Glen

How about running it under a UV lamp?

---

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com

[Funkstopper]

The ozone machines that I use in my business are great for sterilizing a room, but for vegetable we use an ozone bubbler. They run about $200 or less for a small model. Just fill the sink with your produce and run the bubbler in the water for about 1/2 hour. The ozonated water should kill all microorganisms. Tested and found effective by the FDA on e. coli and MRSA. Haven't heard anything about rat lung disease yet. Ozone won't kill the snails. Only microorganisms. You might give them a bad case of asthma. Ah the sound of coquis and wheezing snails.
More and more produce companies and meat facilities are washing there equipment down with ozonated water. You can buy a whole house ozone generator for your water for about 2-3 thousand. UV is cheaper but less effective from what I've read.
In the mean time go out on a snail stomp.
Jim Warner
The funkstopper
http://www.funkstoppers.com

The funk stops here!

[Guest]

Ozone works great for a lot of things because it gives a free radical.
That is exactly how hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) works

as for snails, just sprinkle some Epsom's salt around your plants.
magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) is also beneficial to you veggies.

But don't over do it.

[AlohaSteven]

Have you heard about electrolyzed water as a sterilizing agent?

The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water...scientists say is powerful enough to kill anthrax spores without harming people or the environment. Used as a sanitizer for decades in Russia and Japan, it's slowly winning acceptance in the United States. A New York poultry processor uses it to kill salmonella on chicken carcasses. Minnesota grocery clerks spray sticky conveyors in the checkout lanes. Michigan jailers mop with electrolyzed water to keep potentially lethal cleaners out of the hands of inmates. In Santa Monica, the once-skeptical Sheraton housekeeping staff has ditched skin-chapping bleach and pungent ammonia for spray bottles filled with electrolyzed water to clean toilets and sinks..."This sounds too good to be true, which is really the biggest problem," said Feirtag, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. "But it's only a matter of time before this becomes mainstream."

Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid'
by Marla Dickerson
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ma...7567.story
...with videoclip goodness.

Does anyone have a personal experience of this stuff? Indeed, it does sound too good to be true -but that is what was probably thought about microwave ovens and suchlike, too, at first.

Sure would be nice to know what effect, if any, electrolyzed water has on rat lungworm L3 in slime trails and in small slugs hidden deep down inside veggies.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

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