The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to address concerns about foodborne illnessoutbreaks linked to untreated open source irrigation water via a proposed revision to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. The rule change addresses the threat topublic health from the foodborne illness outbreaks that continue to occur with high frequency incertain produce commodities. It is widely believed that the root cause of the outbreaks is theproximity of animal feed lots to open source irrigation supplies, necessitating the sanitization ofirrigation water to ensure delivery of pathogen-free water to crops. Growers, however, currentlylack viable mitigation tools to comply with the impending regulatory change. The primary solutiontoday is to use furrow growing to avoid contact between water and plant leaves during irrigationand/or to apply spray irrigation only when harvest is greater than 3 weeks away. Current, butinfrequently employed, sanitization solutions include treating irrigation water with environmentallydamaging chemicals like chlorine or implementing cost prohibitive technological solutions. EnSolución proposes a cost-effective, easily implemented, chemical and residual free irrigationwater treatment system that utilizes ozone nanobubbles to neutralize pathogens. Ozone, in bothits gaseous and aqueous phases, is generally recognized as safe by the FDA and has beenshown to effectively reduce microbial contamination in waste water; however, operationalinefficiency and environmental safety concerns have precluded widespread adoption of aqueousozone by the agriculture industry. Unlike traditional macro-sized bubbles from existingtechnologies, the nanobubbles produced by En Solución's technology have the remarkable abilityto remain stable in high concentrations for months at a time and allow for high gas infusion ratesand retention times. Environmental safety is greatly improved as the ozone does not outgas tothe environment, but rather, reverts back to oxygen while in the solution. En Solución will delivera fully automated system that removes the requirement for specialized workforces necessary todeliver today's irrigation sanitization solutions. The technology developed by En Solución alsohas implications on plant productivity and soil health, as hyper-oxygenated water (a byproduct ofthe decay of ozone nanobubbles in the irrigation water) has been demonstrated to stimulate plantand root growth. During the Phase I project, En Solución will develop a field-scale automatedozone nanobubble irrigation system and fully validate the technology via pilot implementation atan operating farm and comprehensive third party microbial testing.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative. Irrigation with untreated surface water has been repeatedly identified as a
potential cause of foodborne illness outbreaks linked to fresh produce. En Solución proposes to
innovative beyond existing irrigation water treatment methods to provide a cost-effective, easily
implemented, chemical and residual free irrigation water treatment system that utilizes ozone
nanobubbles to neutralize pathogens and potentially provide a much needed enhancement of
public health outcomes for field grown produce safety.
Project Terms:
