Uniform Strategy for Decontamination of Stored Food

The impact of acute and chronic disease via exposure to pathogens and chemical contaminants in food as well as financial losses incurred from such contaminants is significant. In an effort to increase the safety of foods, many intervention strategies have been developed, though none have been successful for uniform reduction of diverse food-derived chemical and biological contaminants in foods. Ozone (O3) has been shown to be a safe and effective decontaminating agent in many post-harvest and food processing applications and has grown in popularity due to the lack of chemical persistence, the broad susceptibility of organisms, and the ability to synthesize the disinfectant on-demand. Despite the promising economic and decontamination capabilities of ozone as a food decontaminant, the generation and uniform delivery of O3 gas throughout grains and oilseeds remains a challenge. The uniform decontamination process described here in offers unparalleled advantages over existing post-harvest treatment methods currently available. The Phase I research effort will prove that this process is capable of rapidly reducing significant populations of a wide range of naturally-occurring, stored food contaminants while focusing on user safety, food quality, and system flexibility. With the decontaminating agent generated on-site/on-demand, this treatment process can be easily transferred to rural agricultural settings for extended periods of time.