The long-term aims are the development of safe sanitizers for the decontamination of raw food products to prevent food-borne infections and to extend the shelf-life of these products. Presently available chemical and physical sanitizers are either not safe, as they may result in toxic residues in food, or the agents are not readily accepted (radiation) for use on food surfaces. Raw food such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, fish, meat and poultry pose serious health hazards when contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms such as S. typbimufium, L. monocytogenes and A. bydropbilia. Microcide plans to develop safe sanitizing formulations by using food additive or GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) chemical ingredients which display rapid antimicrobial properties under certain physico-chemical conditions. These chemical ingredients will be incorporated in formulations under the activating conditions to prepare safe and effective sanitizers. We further plan to evaluate the efficacy of these sanitizers to reduce the population of pathogenic bacteria from laboratory contaminated raw food products such as vegetables.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:This research project has potential to develop a safe sanitizing product or products which could be used directly on raw food products to reduce microbial contamination, extend the shelf-life, and reduce the risk of food-borne infections. There is no safe sanitizing product on the market for direct application on raw foods. This product can commercially be used on fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, poultry and meat. These safe sanitizers could also be used in the personal and health care industries. Since there is no competitive product on the market, these sanitizing products have potential for a large market share.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
