The antimicrobial effects of ozonated water in a recirculating concurrent reactor were evaluated against four gram-positive and four gram-negative bacteria, two yeasts, and spores of Aspergillus niger. More than 5 log units each of Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli cells were killed instantaneously in ozonated water with or without addition of 20 ppm of soluble starch (SS). In ozonated water, death rates among the gram-negative bacteria--S. typhimurium, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Yersinia enterocolitica--were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Among gram-positive bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes was significantly (P < 0.05) more sensitive than either Staphylococcus aureus or Enterococcus faecalis. In the presence of organic material, death rates of S. aureus compared with L. monocytogenes and E. coli compared with S. typhimurium in ozonated water were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by SS addition but were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) by addition of 20 ppm of bovine serum albumin (BSA). More than 4.5 log units each of Candida albicans and Zygosaccharomyces bailii cells were killed instantaneously in ozonated water, whereas less than 1 log unit of Aspergillus niger spores was killed after a 5-min exposure. The average ozone output levels in the deionized water (0.188 mg/ml) or water with SS (0.198 mg/ml) did not differ significantly (P < 0.05) but were significantly lower in water containing BSA (0.149 mg/ml).

The emerging foodborne and waterborne pathogen, Arcobacter, has been linked to various gastrointestinal diseases. Currently, 19 species are established or proposed; consequently, there has been an increase in the number of publications regarding Arcobacter since it was first introduced in 1991. To better understand the potential public health risks posed by Arcobacter, this review summarizes the current knowledge concerning the global distribution and the prevalence of Arcobacter in food and water. Arcobacter spp. were identified in food animals, food‐processing environments and a variety of foods, including vegetables, poultry, beef, dairy products, seafood, pork, lamb and rabbit. A wide range of waterbodies has been reported to be contaminated with Arcobacter spp., such as wastewater, seawater, lake and river water, drinking water, groundwater and recreational water. In addition, Arcobacter has also been isolated from pets, domestic birds, wildlife, zoo and farm animals. It is expected that advancements in molecular techniques will facilitate better detection worldwide and aid in understanding the pathogenicity of Arcobacter. However, more extensive and rigorous surveillance systems are needed to better understand the occurrence of Arcobacter in food and water in various regions of the world, as well as uncover other potential public health risks, that is antibiotic resistance and disinfection efficiency, to reduce the possibility of foodborne and waterborne infections.

Green cleaner and disinfectant can provide a better environment and they can reduce cleaning cost by eliminating the cost of harsh cleaning chemicals, minimizing cleaning chemicals storage space, reducing cost for wastewater treatment and reducing logistics cost for chemical supply. This study explored the personal view of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) top to bottom workers towards the challenges during cleaning and disinfection process and their readiness in accepting a green cleaner and disinfectant. In this work, the advantages and disadvantages of electrolyzed water (EW) as green cleaner and disinfectant were discussed. A lab-scale batch ion-exchange membrane electrolysis unit was used to produce acidic electrolyzed water (AcEW) and alkaline electrolyzed water (AlEW). The stability of AcEW and AlEW was also studied based on its physical changes (pH, oxidative-reduction potential (ORP), chlorine content and hydrogen peroxide content) in 7 days of storage, whereby measurements were taken daily. The pH maintained for both AcEW and AlEW during the 7 days of storage. The ORP maintained at plateau for the first 5 days of AcEW storage. After 5 days, AcEW showed a decreasing trend. While ORP for AlEW increases drastically between day 1 and 2. Then, the ORP reaches a plateau after three days. The amount of free chlorine, total chlorine and hydrogen peroxide content was 10 mg/L, respectively, on the day of production. However, all the properties decreased gradually and there were no chlorine and hydrogen peroxide detected on the 7th day. The results from this study can be used as a guideline to store the EW and to understand the stability of the EW, which can benefit the SME food manufacturers.

Protozoan parasites can survive under ambient and refrigerated storage conditions when associated with a range of substrates. Consequently, various treatments have been used to inactivate protozoan parasites (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Cyclospora) in food, water, and environmental systems. Physical treatments that affect survival or removal of protozoan parasites include freezing, heating, filtration, sedimentation, UV light, irradiation, high pressure, and ultrasound. Ozone is a more effective chemical disinfectant than chlorine or chlorine dioxide for inactivation of protozoan parasites in water systems. However, sequential inactivation treatments can optimize existing treatments through synergistic effects. Careful selection of methods to evaluate inactivation treatments is needed because many studies that have employed vital dye stains and in vitro excystation have produced underestimations of the effectiveness of these treatments.

Electrolyzed oxidizing water (EOW) can be considered in the agrofood industry as a new antimicrobial agent with disinfectant, detoxifying, and shelf-life improvement properties. EOW is produced by electrolysis of water, with no added chemicals, except for sodium chloride. The antifungal and detoxifying mechanisms of EOW depend mainly on: pH, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and available chlorine concentration (ACC). EOW offers many advantages over other conventional chemical methods, including less adverse chemical residues, safe-handling, secure, energy-saving, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly. As a result, EOW could be used for the development of safer and more socially acceptable methods for fungi decontamination and mycotoxin detoxification. This review contains an overview of EOW effectiveness to decontaminate non-toxigenic and mycotoxigenic fungi, its safety and efficacy for mycotoxin detoxification, the proposed mechanism of action of EOW on fungal cells, and the chemical mechanism of action of EOW on mycotoxins. Finally, conclusions and future research necessities are also outlined.

Pathogenic microorganisms are a serious threat to global health, that involves high costs of the treatment and their fight. We proposed to evaluate PAW antimicrobial activity against the microorganisms food-borne pathogens. PAW It was observed that due to the reactive species in water shows a post-discharge an antimicrobial effect on food-borne pathogens showed until a few days after discontinuation of plasma discharge in water. The logarithmic reduction was higher than 5log10 after an exposure time of 5-min, exhibiting a powerful bactericidal effect. Significant reduction in bacterial population were achieved in all type strains, demonstrating the effectiveness of this new approach to treat the food borne pathogens. Thus, non-thermal plasma activated water can be a promising alternative to traditional disinfection applied in food industry.

Describes how to purify water for home use.

Cold plasma is an emerging non-thermal disinfection and surface modification technology which is chemical free, and eco-friendly. Plasma treatment of water, termed as plasma activated water (PAW), creates an acidic environment which results in changes of the redox potential, conductivity and in the formation of reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS). As a result, PAW has different chemical composition than water and can serve as an alternative method for microbial disinfection.This paper reviews the different plasma sources employed for PAW generation, its physico-chemical properties and potential areas of PAW applications. More specifically, the physical and chemical properties of PAW are outlined in relation to the acidity, conductivity, redox potential, and concentration of ROS, RNS in the treated water. All these effects are in microbial nature, so the applications of PAW for microbial disinfection are also summarized in this review. Finally, the role of PAW in improving the agricultural practices, for example, promoting seed germination and plant growth, is also presented.PAW appears to have a synergistic effect on the disinfection of food while it can also promote seedling growth of seeds. The increase in the nitrate and nitrite ions in the PAW could be the main reason for the increase in plant growth. Soaking seeds in PAW not only serves as an anti-bacterial but also enhances the seed germination and plant growth. PAW could potentially be used to increase crop yield and to fight against the drought stress environmental conditions.

The chemistry, antimicrobial efficacy and energy consumption of plasma-activated water (PAW) was optimized by altering the discharge frequency, ground-electrode configuration, gas flow rate and initial water conductivity for two reactor configurations, i.e., air pin-to-liquid discharge and air plasma-bubble discharge in water. The ratio of NO₂⁻ and NO₃⁻ formation was altered to optimise the antimicrobial effects of PAW, tested against two Gram-negative bacteria. An initial solution conductivity of 0.2 S·m⁻¹ and 2000-Hz discharge frequency with the ground electrode positioned inside the pin reactor showed the highest antimicrobial effect resulting in a 3.99 ± 0.13-log₁₀ reduction within 300 s against Escherichia coli and 5.90 ± 0.24-log₁₀ reduction within 240 s for Salmonella Typhimurium. An excellent energy efficiency of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) generation of 10.1 ± 0.1 g·kW⁻¹·h⁻¹ was achieved.Plasma-activated water (PAW) is deemed as an eco-friendly alternative to chemical disinfection because its bactericidal activity is temporary. Optimizing the design and operation of PAW reactors to achieve high inactivation rates of more than 5-log₁₀ reductions, as demonstrated in this work, will support the industrial application of this technology and the scaleup at industrial level.