Thermal fogging with disinfectants and antifreezes enables effective industrial disinfection in subzero cold‐chain environment

AIM: During several local COVID‐19 outbreaks in China in 2020, SARS‐CoV‐2 or its RNA was isolated or detected from frozen food or packages, revealing the lack of effective disinfection measures in the frozen food chain and risk of transmission. We explored the possibility that disinfectant plus antifreeze could be delivered as thermal fog to realize effective disinfection at subzero temperatures. METHODS AND RESULTS: We selected two disinfectant‐antifreeze combinations, didecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide (DDAB) – propylene glycol (PPG) and peracetic acid (PAA) – triethylene glycol (TEG), and each combination is used with a custom‐optimized thermal fogging machine. The two fogs were tested in −20°C freezer warehouses for their disinfection efficacy against a coronavirus porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) field strain, a swine influenza virus (SIV) field strain, and three indicator bacteria, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis endospores. At −20°C, the DDAB‐PPG or PAA‐TEG thermal fogs settle within 3.5 to 4.5 h and effectively inactivated PEDV with median tissue culture infective dose of 10⁻³.⁵ 0.1 ml⁻¹ and SIV‐H1N1 with hemagglutination titre of 2⁶ ml⁻¹ within 15–60 min. DDAB‐PPG could inactivate S. aureus and E. coli vegetative cells (10⁶ cfu ml⁻¹) within 15–60 min but not effective on B. subtilis spores, while PAA‐TEG could disinfect B. subtilis spores more effectively than for S. aureus and E. coli. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that a practical subzero temperature disinfection technology was effective in killing enveloped viruses and vegetative bacteria or bacterial spores. DDAB‐PPG or PAA‐TEG thermal fogging may be a practical technology for cold‐chain disinfection. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This subzero temperature disinfection technology could help to meet the urgent public health need of environmental disinfection in frozen food logistics against pandemic and other potential pathogens and to enhance national and international biosecurity.