Microbial Decontamination of Food Using Ozone

Ozone has the potential to fill a substantial gap in today's technologies that are used to ensure food safety. If can be generated directly from water, air or pure oxygen by several methods; the most efficient being the corona discharge process. Food processors can use ozone in its gaseous or aqueous state. In all states, concentration of ozone during food treatment should be measured with reasonable accuracy. Inconsistent use of equipment, procedures and units to measure ozone make it difficult to compare decontamination results from different sources. Despite these technical hurdles, ozone has been proven effective at decontaminating various foods. The benefits of ozone, in many cases, outweigh the drawbacks and its applications in food are expected to increase in popularity in the coming years.