Evaluation of gaseous chlorine dioxide for the inactivation of Tulane virus on blueberries.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Kingsley, David H.; Pérez-Pérez, Rafael E.; Niemira, Brendan A.; Fan, Xuetong
- Source
- International Journal of Food Microbiology. May2018, Vol. 273, p28-32. 5p.
- Subject
- *CHLORINE dioxide
*VIRUS inactivation
*BLUEBERRIES
*PLANT inoculation
*FRUIT quality
*ACIDIFICATION
*DISEASES
- Language
- ISSN
- 0168-1605
To determine the effectiveness of gaseous chlorine dioxide (gClO 2 ) against a human norovirus surrogate on produce, gClO 2 was generated and applied to Tulane virus-coated blueberries in a 240 ml-treatment chamber. gClO 2 was produced by an acidifying sodium chlorite solution. Initial assessments indicated that blueberries treated with gClO 2 generated from ≤1 mg acidified sodium chlorite in the small chamber appeared unaffected while gClO 2 generated from ≥10 mg of acidified sodium chlorite solution altered the appearance and quality of the blueberries. Treatments of inoculated blueberries with gClO 2 generated from 0.1 mg sodium chlorite reduced the virus populations by >1 log after exposure for 30 to 330 min. For the 1 mg sodium chlorite treatments, the virus populations were reduced by >2.2 log after 15 min exposure and to non-detectable levels (>3.3 logs reductions) after 180 min exposure. Measured concentrations of gClO 2 peaked in the treatment chamber at 0.9 μg/l after 10 min for 0.1 mg treatments and 600 μg/l after around 20 min for 1 mg treatment. Overall results indicate that gClO 2 could be a feasible waterless intervention for blueberries and other produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]