Disinfection or Sanitization Assurance Indicator for Tomato and Cantaloupe

The food supply chain consists of many potential contamination points including growingharvesting post-harvest handling transport processing distribution storage and packaging andfinally preparation by the consumer.Food can become contaminated with harmfulmicroorganisms at any point in the supply chain.If left unchecked microbial contamination cancause foodborne illness if the consumer eats contaminated food.There are 9.6 million cases offoodborne illness annually in US causing 57462 hospitalizations 1451 deaths and an annualeconomic impact of $15.5 billion.Chlorine Dioxide gas is a promising technology to reduce microbial contamination of food.Chlorine Dioxide gas was recently approved by the EPA for use on tomatoes and cantaloupes.The proposed work includes the development of a passive chlorine dioxide colorimetricdosimeter for sanitization assurance of tomatoes and cantaloupes.The proposed technologysupports the unique sanitization requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)which includes requirements for nearly all participants in the food supply chain to implementappropriate controls.The objective of the work is to provide a proof of concept prototype which demonstratesindication of chlorine dioxide at specified doses required to achieve targeted micro-organism killrates on tomatoes and cantaloupes.If successful this project could lead to a low-cost real-timechemical indicator that can be used by the food industry to demonstrate sanitization ordisinfection of tomatoes and cantaloupes.