Sep 01 2009
Ozone enriched water for rinsing of fresh food
Ozone Enriched Water for Fresh Food Processing
Ozone-enriched water systems can be effectively used for rinsing of fruits & vegetables, meat, poultry and fish cleaning and processing. The systems can be easily integrated into flume, cascade, or drench type operations. The ozone systems can be integrated into an ozone prewash and ozone wash sections. As an FDA approved direct food contact, antimicrobial agent, ozone can be dissolved into water and used for direct contact on fruits and vegetables, raw and ready-to-eat meat and poultry, fish and commercial eggs. The benefits of ozone-enriched water far outweigh chemical-enriched water traditionally used in the 20th century. Ozone dissolved in water can provide a 6 log reduction in as low as 30 seconds (depending on the micro-organism).
Ozone-enriched water leaves no chemical residue on your product and actually assists in removing pre-wash residues in some products.
Applications:
Aquazone Ozone systems can be easily integrated into most existing conveyor lines and flumes. The systems provide low pressure spray, cascade,
drench or flume designs for end-user fabrication to integrate into existing wash lines. OSI can also provide plumbing designs for recycling or flow-through systems to fit into most wash lines. Ozone is used in both prewash (to disinfect water) and wash (to disinfect product) sections of your process.
Benefits
Using an Aquazone process (ozone-enriched wash) on fruits
or vegetables will yield many benefits. The main benefits of direct contact on fruits and vegetables are:
• Longer shelf life
• Improved product colour and appearance
• Improved taste
• Reduced product spoilage
“In the USA food additive regulations provide for the
safe use of ozone in gaseous and aqueous
phase as an anti-microbial agent on food,
including meat and poultry.”
Also in the USA non-agricultural (non organic) substances allowed
as ingredients in or on processed products labelled as “organic” or “made with organic include ozone.
The use of ozone on raw and ready-to-eat meat and poultry products just prior to packaging is also acceptable. There are no special labelling requirements in regard to treated product.