High-risk foods also include fresh produce such as leafy greens, romaine lettuce and spinach.
The concern with fresh produce is that it is often not cooked before being eaten, and thus there is the potential for dangerous pathogens on the fresh produce to be consumed and make a person ill.
The Center for Produce Safety is funding a research team at Drexel University who are working to develop a specific treatment to kill dangerous pathogens on fresh produce.
This new treatment is a cold plasma wash water treatment as cold plasma is proven to be effective at inactivating pathogens in water in a rapid manner.
The ultimate goal of the project is to design a plasma-based wash water management system for minimally-processed fresh produce to eliminate cross-contamination.
The researchers at Drexel University are also teaming up with SmartWash Solutions and Sunterra Produce Traders East in the research process.
More information about the research and the project can be found on this document provided by the Center for Produce Safety.
The treatment is able to be used on fresh produce without damaging the food product.
This is of particular importance in the fresh produce industry, since cleaning fresh produce properly in order to kill pathogens can be difficult and can damage the product in the process.
This is beneficial to the food industry, especially the food produce industry as it allows for the decontamination of fresh produce without added expense.
In order to validate the research, plasma-treated water will be used to wash produce that is contaminated with strains of E. coli and other produce that is not contaminated.
As the research continues, the team hopes that the testing will validate the efficiency of the cold plasma wash water system and its ability to improve produce safety for consumers.