A mathematical model for pathogen cross-contamination dynamics during produce wash

Daniel Munther, Yaguang Luo, Jianhong Wu, Felicia Magpantay, Partha Srinivasan

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    One of the main challenges for the fresh-food produce industry is to ensure that the produce is free from harmful pathogens. A potential area of risk is due to cross-contamination in a sanitizing chlorine wash-cycle, where the same water is used to wash contaminated as well as non-contaminated produce. However, this is also an area where effective intervention strategies are possible, provided we have a good understanding of the mechanism of cross-contamination. Based on recent experimental work by Luo, Y. et al. A pilot plant scale evaluation of a new process aid for enhancing chlorine efficacy against pathogen survival and cross-contamination during produce wash, International Journal of Food Microbiology , 158 (2012), 133–139, we have built mathematical models that allow us to quantify the amount of cross-contamination of Escherichia coli O157:H7 from spinach to lettuce, and assessed the efficacy of the associated wash-cycle protocols.
    Original languageAmerican English
    JournalFood Microbiology
    Volume51
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Oct 1 2015

    Keywords

    • Mathematical modeling
    • Cross-contamination
    • Produce wash-cycle
    • Mathematical modeling; Cross-contamination; Produce wash-cycle

    Disciplines

    • Public Health
    • Ordinary Differential Equations and Applied Dynamics
    • Mathematics

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