Foodborne diseases comprise a wide range of preventable and under-reported illnesses, and are of widespread public health and economic concern worldwide. In Australia, an estimated 4.1 million domestically acquired cases of foodborne gastroenteritis occur annually, with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion per year. While the true burden of disease is often under-estimated, foodborne outbreaks affected 3,639 people, resulting in at least 348 hospital admissions and 4 deaths in 2016 in Australia. The spread of spoilage and pathogenic bacteria in foods and in the food environment and the limitations of existing biocides continue to drive the development of novel, safe, and effective sanitisers that are compatible for the food industry.
Electrolysed oxidizing water (EOW) is an alternative sanitisation technology mainly used in the healthcare industry to control Legionella in water supplies but has also gained attention in the food industry. Of the various types of EOW, the pH-neutral EOW is considered the most promising as it contains predominantly HOCl, which is more effective than OCl– in NaOCl for microbial cell wall penetration and oxidative attack while not presenting the corrosiveness of the acidic or slightly acidic forms.
We have used a pH-neutral EOW produced using a patented technology (Ecas4) to extend the shelf life and reduce the bacterial populations and specific spoilage organisms associated with the Southern Australian King George Whiting and Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon fillets. Additionally, we have successfully used the pH-neutral EOW to significantly reduce bacterial load on baby spinach and lettuce leaf surfaces pre- and post-harvest without any obvious negative effects on leaf appearance. EOW could serve as a viable alternative to chemical-based sanitisers for improving the shelf life and overall quality of food products including seafood, minimally processed vegetables, beef, pork, eggs and poultry, and could translate into health and economic benefit through reduction and/or elimination of food spoilage bacteria.