Salmonella-free market shell eggs are now within reach. The US Egg
Safety Action Plan calls for complete eradication of Salmonella from market
shell eggs during the next decade. Salmonella causes a serious food-transmitted
disease, and incidence of salmonellosis is the highest among foodborne diseases
in the US. Ohio is the second in the nation in egg production, and the national
action plan has a major impact on Ohio egg producer and processors, and on the
State’s economy. OSU researcher, Yousef, Lee, Rodriguez-Romo, and Vurma,
collaborate with a consortium of Ohio egg producers (Egg Tech Ltd.), and
equipment manufacturers, to optimize an ozone-based technology for effective
eradication of Salmonella in fresh eggs and to explore the market potential of
the optimized process. Funding for this effort is provided by the Midwest
Advanced Food Manufacturing Alliance (MAFMA), the Center for Innovative Food
Technology (CIFT) of Toledo, ozone equipment manufacturers, and the OARDC
through the Ag Biosciences Initiative Grant.
A new ozone generator gives us the ability to optimize the process for industrial scale-up. We are now in discussion stages with a potential manufacturer of commercial units. This manufacturer met with the Eggtech Ltd. Partners, these investigators, and CIFT on June 15, 2006 to plan the next phase of commercialization.
A one-year FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service) competitive grant of $75,000 was obtained to assist our objective of meeting the national egg safety action plan. This grant enables focus on a commercial scale design of equipment that validates an egg decontamination process that can be used by the egg industry, a final project report for use by FSIS, and scholarly publications and web-based materials for FSIS use.
A one-year CIFT / EISC (Center for Innovative Food Technology) competitive grant of $25,000 was obtained to assist in process optimization for scale up to commercial units.
A website was launched to inform potential partners and future customers of the technology: http://eggtechltd.com
Luis A. Rodriguez-Romo and Ahmed E. Yousef, 2005. Inactivation of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis on Shell Eggs by Ozone and UV Radiation, Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 68, No. 4, 2005, Pages 711–717.
Yousef, A., Lee, K. 2006. Optimizing Ozone Processing Technology for Farm-Fresh, Salmonella-Free Shell eggs OARDC Research Update, Seeds No. 35.
Luis A. Rodriguez-Romo, Mustafa Vurma, Ken Lee, and Ahmed E. Yousef, 2006. Penetration of Ozone Gas across the Shell of Hen Eggs. Ozone Science & Engineering, submitted.
Biweekly progress reports on this project were sent to FSIS, ATECH, Eggtech Ltd, and posted to a secure area of the website. Contact any member of this team for the password for the URLs for these continually updating internal reports. For convenience copies of all reports are on the web site.