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Over the past few years, food safety has become and continues to be the number one public concern.
Considerable progress to strengthen food safety systems has been achieved in many countries,
highlighting the opportunities to reduce and prevent food-borne disease. However, unacceptable rates
of food-borne illness still remain and new hazards continue to enter the food supply chain.
Contaminations in food and agricultural products may occur in every stage of the food supply chain,
from the field to the table, that is production, harvesting, processing, storage and distribution, calling
for proper decontamination and insuring food safety at each of these stages using an effective
antimicrobial agent. Several commercial products are available for this purpose, however, most of
available products are seriously hindered by a number of work and environmental safety limitations
calling for the development of a new product which is both safe for environment and workers. In this
accord, the use of acidic electrolyzed water (AEW), a new concept developed in Japan, which is now
gaining popularity in other countries has been introduced. The principle behind its sterilizing effect is
still explored, but it has shown to have strong and significant bactericidal and virucidal and moderate
fungicidal properties. Some studies have been carried out in Japan, China, Korea, Canada, Europe and
the USA on its pre- and post-harvest application in the field of food processing. This review provides an
overview of microbiological safety of food and agricultural produces, points out the burdens of food
borne diseases; highlights the drawbacks of currently employed sanitizers and introduces electrolyzed
water as a novel non-thermal food sanitizer with potential of application in agriculture and food
industry. |
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