Fruit and vegetable processing plants

Ozone is a universal disinfectant that can oxidize organic matter and inorganic compounds, destroy viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. For over a century, ozone has been used in water treatment processes and only recently it has started to play a major role in the food and agriculture industry.

Ozone acts by breaking down pathogenic cell tissue and is a much more effective method that chlorine. Indeed, with only 0.4 ppm during four minutes, ozone can eliminate bacteria, viruses, moulds and fungi.

Ozone is a very unstable compound with a very short lifespan – once it has done its job as disinfectant, it breaks down into oxygen.

Increased demand from consumers and current regulations have led to an exhaustive overhaul of the types of disinfectants used in the washing processes for fruit and vegetables.

Ozone plays an important role in those processes, and unlike other systems, it leaves behind no chemical residues either on the product or in the water used for washing.

With the use of ozone in the food washing and the subsequent ozonization of the water used for it, the reduction in water consumption is huge, as is the reduction in costs (especially in water-hungry industries like fruit and vegetable processing plants).

Water for washing precut salads

The use of ozone for washing salads and vegetables produces water with a high degree of purity that is unattainable with other methods. Its disinfection power and the total absence of chemical products in the end-product make this system the ideal choice for this type of process.

With 2 ppm of residual ozone in the wash water, a reduction of 90% in terms of surface contamination can be obtained. These results are equal or better than those obtained using 50 ppm of chlorine.

Another advantage is that after washing, the water used is not contaminated and there are no alternations in the product’s colour, quality or texture. Sometimes, the average product life is even prolonged through this process.

Water for fruit and vegetable washing

After the harvest, the surfaces of fruits and vegetables can be contaminated with traces of pesticides and herbicides. These chemical agents are bioaccumulable in our organism, and after several years, they can pose serious problems to our health.

In order to eliminate this kind of contamination – both chemical and microbiological in nature – these products are usually washed with water, either by immersion or with showers.

Washing with water is not always enough to guarantee the effective elimination of this contamination. This can cause important losses during the storage process if the product goes bad. It should be pointed out that these washings lead to the accumulation of microorganisms and chemical agents in the water, and this in turn entails high water consumption, since this water cannot be re-used.

Ozone plays an important role in these processes, not only because of its disinfection power in food surfaces and its elimination of pesticides and herbicides, but also because it allows for the re-use of the water employed in the process. This means big savings in water consumption and that all water put back into the public system is totally treated.

The Ralstonia Solanacearum bacteria is one whose elimination is essential in, above all, the potato processing industry, not only because of potentially large product losses, but also because the water used for washing is high in this bacteria and must be effectively treated before it is disposed of.

Ozone is very effective against microorganisms found in fruits and vegetables, especially E. Coli, moulds and yeasts. It is very effective against Ralstonia Solanacearum, which can produce great losses in the potato, tomato and tobacco industries.