The Addition of Viriditec TM Aqueous Ozone to Peracetic Acid as an Antimicrobial Spray Increases Air Quality While Maintaining Salmonella Typhimurium, Non-pathogenic Escherichia coli , and Campylobacter jejuni Reduction on Whole Carcasses

Currently, the most utilized antimicrobial in processing facilities is peracetic acid, PAA; however, this chemical is increasingly recognized as a hazard to human health. Preliminary evidence suggests that ozone, when introduced in a specific manner, can reduce the noxious nature of PAA. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of TetraClean Systems aqueous ozone, O , in combination with PAA as an antimicrobial spray on whole chicken carcasses. This trial used 70 whole hen carcasses (7 treatments; 10 replications) that were inoculated in a 400 mL cocktail containing , and (10 CFU/mL) and allowed to adhere for 60 min at 4°C for a final concentration of 10 to 10 CFU/g. The experimental 5 s (4×) spray treatments included: a no treatment negative control, TW; TW + O (10 ppm), TW + PAA (50 ppm), TW + PAA (500 ppm), TW + O + PAA (50 ppm), and TW + O + PAA (500 ppm). During treatment application, ambient PAA vapor was measured with a ChemDAQ Safecide PAA vapor sensor. After treatment, carcasses were immediately rinsed in 400 mL of nBPW for 2 min. Following rinsing, the dot method was utilizing for enumeration with 10 μL of rinsate being serially diluted, plated on XLD and mCCDA agar, and incubated aerobically at 37°C for 24 h or microaerophilically at 42°C for 48 h. Log-transformed counts were analyzed using ANOVA in JMP 14.0. Means were separated using Tukey's HSD when ≤ 0.05. There was a significant treatment effect among , and counts, and a significant treatment effect among ambient PAA ( < 0.05). TW + O + PAA (500 ppm), reduced significantly compared to TW (5.71 and 6.30 log CFU/g). Furthermore, TW + PAA (500 ppm), reduced the presence of significantly compared to TW or no treated control (5.57 and 6.18 log CFU/g). Also, TW + PAA (50 ppm), TW + PAA (500 ppm), and TW + O + PAA (500 ppm) significantly reduced compared to carcasses not treated (4.80, 4.81, and 4.86 log CFU/g). Lastly, the addition of ozone significantly reduced the ambient PAA when O was added to 500 ppm of PAA, as TW + O + PAA (500 ppm) produced less ambient PAA than TW + PAA (500 ppm) (0.052 and 0.565 ppm). In conclusion, the addition of ozone to PAA may demonstrated the ability to effectively reduce ambient PAA, thus increasing employee safety.