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Raising the standards
While consumers like Wyman should continue to exercise diligence about food safety (see www.foodsafety.gov), Linton says the industry as a whole must do more to improve safety practices from farm to table. “We need to be better in order to lessen the amount of contamination from farms and during distribution for foods that are ultimately delivered to retailers or consumers. Right now, manufacturers don’t have effective washing procedures that can reduce E. coli, salmonella and other organisms to a safe level,” he says. “If you have E. coli O157:H7 on your lettuce—or other fruits and vegetables—at an unsafe level, you can’t wash it at home to make it safe. The only thing you can do is cook it.”
Linton explains that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends a 100,000-fold reduction in
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Food scientist Rich Linton leads a Purdue research team that developed a new technology to kill pathogens on fresh produce. The process is undergoing testing in Purdue’s pilot lab (pictured here), which simulates industry conditions. (Photo by Tom Campbell) |
pathogens on fresh-cut produce, but traditional sanitizing washes only provide about a 100-fold reduction. “We’re 1,000 times away from where we need to be. Raising this percentage is the FDA’s No. 1 initiative,” says Linton, who, in addition to his research, has developed internationally recognized food safety, HACCP and sanitation training programs for producers and manufacturers. “There’s a tremendous amount of effort being put into developing technology and getting it right to industry.”
Technology on the fast track
Purdue’s is among some 50 leading university research programs at work on new or improved technologies that range from irradiation to better washing agents. “This emphasis on technology transfer is one of the fastest areas of risk reduction that we’ve seen in a long time,” Linton says. The veteran food scientist collaborates with a multidisciplinary research team that has developed a new treatment method using a non-toxic chlorine dioxide gas to kill pathogens.
Food science colleagues Mark Morgan and Philip Nelson are key members of the research team who contribute processing and engineering strategies in a usable form for industry. The new process underwent initial testing earlier this year in the Department of Food Science’s pilot lab, which simulates an industry setting. The treatment is currently being evaluated at a University of California Davis-affiliated industry center and may be available for widespread use later this year.
Linton says the search for more effective treatments is not limited to discovering new technologies but developing those that satisfy the factors of cost, time and acceptance by manufacturers and consumers. “There are a lot of great technologies out there, but they don’t fit within the food system. It may be that they’re not affordable for industry use, that they lessen product shelf life, or that they negatively change appearance or taste,” he says. “If the product is safe, but no one will eat it, that’s not what we want. We have to ask, ‘Will this work for industry?’”
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