Sanitization Assurance Indicator for Food Facilities

The food supply chain consists of many potential contamination points including growing, harvesting, post-harvest handling, transport, processing, distribution, storage and packaging, and finally preparation by the consumer. There are 9.6 million cases of foodborne illness annually in US with an annual economic impact of $15.5 billion. Contamination also leads to spoilage of food and significant loss of food supply. The annual cost of produce spoilage losses in the US exceeds $50 billion. This loss is significantly higher in developing countries due to less sophisticated harvesting and processing equipment and practices. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law in 2011. The law requires small and large businesses to comply with FSMA rules for preventive control of food contamination. For equipment and tools, the regulation requires that "food contact surfaces of such equipment be inspected, maintained, and cleaned and sanitized, when necessary and appropriate, as frequently as reasonably necessary to protect against contamination of covered produce". Additionally, "instruments or controls used to measure sanitizer efficacy in order to control or prevent the growth of undesirable microorganisms or other contamination must be accurate and precise, and adequate in number for their designated uses". Thus, regular effective sanitization of equipment and buildings in contact with food along with instruments and controls to accurately and precisely measure sanitization efficacy are requirements for all non-exempt produce businesses.The major goals of this project include the development and demonstration of a chlorine dioxide (CD) colorimetric dosimeter sensor which accurately, and with high precision, indicates visually when an efficacious dose (concentration x time) of CD has been reached in a given space. The proposed work will demonstrate a simple, low-cost sanitization assurance dosimeter that will facilitate cost-effective compliance of growers and distributors with FSMA sanitation requirements, leading to a significant reduction in foodborne illness and food spoilage, and their associated costs.