ATHENS, Ga., April 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have created a technology that kills pathogens on food at home and in restaurants, grocery stores and food-processing facilities.
Created at the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, the technology has been licensed to the maker of FIT Fruit and Vegetable Wash.
University researchers said the process can kill significant numbers of E. coli and salmonella bacteria in less than one minute. The technology can be used as a food wash, with commercial applications for the produce, poultry, meat and egg processing industries.
"The re-formulated FIT food wash will kill more harmful microbes faster," said Mike Doyle, Center for Food Safety director, and, along with microbiologist Tong Zhao, one of the technology's inventors. "The new anti-microbial food wash is orders of magnitude more powerful and twice faster" than previous similar products.
Doyle said the wash has no effects on smell, taste or appearance of the foods that are treated.
