En Solucion Inc — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.5

Description

As consumer demand for fresh produce continues to grow so do concerns about foodborneillnesses and disease outbreaks. Postharvest wash is a critical control point in fresh produceprocessing for reducing or eliminating pathogens and other field-acquired contaminants thatcan result in such outbreaks. Current methods of postharvest washing provide less than 100%efficacy in removing pathogens and are generally acknowledged to have negativeenvironmental and worker safety impacts. En Soluci³n is developing a novel intervention whichutilizes nano-sized bubbles of gases at the point of postharvest wash. Aqueous nanobubblemixtures have been shown to have novel surface cleaning capabilities due to the high surfacearea-to-volume ratio of the gas bubbles contained in solution. Unlike traditional macro-sizedbubbles the nanobubbles have the remarkable ability to remain stable in high concentrationsfor months at a time. During the Phase I project En Soluci³n will fully validate the effectivenessof its nanobubble technology as a pathogen neutralizer in postharvest processing by conductingpathogen inactivation studies on produce surfaces and in wash water and by demonstrating theability of nanobubble wash water to affect pathogen shedding into the wash water. In Phase IIEn Soluci³n will move forward with field testing of its technology to integrate the technology ina pilot program demonstrating improvements over existing methodologies in terms ofpathogen control worker and environmental safety cost impact on the product and consumeracceptability.