Oxidized Water Vs. Other Disinfectants: A Comparative Study on the Risks Control of Food contact surfaces Contaminated with Escherichia coli and Salmonella

Tolba, Khaled; Khalifa, Sarah Ragab; Adel, Nirose; Elkhadragy, Aya El Sayed; Shaheen, Momtaz

doi:10.21608/ejvs.2025.397676.2927

Oxidized Water Vs. Other Disinfectants: A Comparative Study on the Risks Control of Food contact surfaces Contaminated with Escherichia coli and Salmonella

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Reference Lab for Safety Analysis of Food of Animal Origin, Food Hygiene Department, Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza.

² Reference Lab for Safety Analysis of Food of Animal Origin, Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.

³ Reference Lab for Safety Analysis of Food of Animal Origin, Food Hygiene Department, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, Agricultural Research Center (ARC

⁴ Virology Department, Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/ejvs.2025.397676.2927

Abstract

Several treatments have been demonstrated to be effective in disinfecting laboratory-contaminated stainless-steel surfaces inoculated with reference strains of Salmonella and E. coli. These treatments included sodium hypochlorite (100 & 150 ppm), hydrogen peroxide (1% & 3%) and acidic electrolyzed water (AEW) at pH 2.5-3 and slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) at pH 5-6.5. The best efficiency was demonstrated by AEW at pH 2.5–3, which completely eliminated S. typhimurium and E. coli, which had initially bacterial loads of 5.83 log CFU for E. coli and 5.7 log CFU for Salmonella. Additionally, E. coli contamination was completely eliminated using sodium hypochlorite at 150 ppm. The reduction in bacterial load was evaluated, and reduction scales along with risk factors (RF) were calculated for both E. coli and S. typhimurium. The recorded reduction scales were: 0.2, 1.4, 0.2, 0.35, 0.0, and 0.06 by using NaClO (100 & 150 ppm), H₂O₂ (1% & 3%), Acidic Electrolyzed Water (AEW) with a pH range of 2.5-3 & 5-6.5, respectively. Risk assessments at 100 ppm of NaClO yielded high risk levels (5.7 and 6) for both organisms. Application of 150 ppm NaClO resulted in negligible risk for E. coli (0) but a high risk (3.8) for S. typhimurium. Conversely, 1% H₂O₂ produced very high-risk levels (6.3 and 6.2) for both organisms. Using 3% H₂O₂, risk levels were high (3.2) for E. coli and moderate (3) for S. typhimurium. Acidic Electrolyzed Water demonstrated negligible risk for both organisms, while Slightly Acidic Electrolyzed Water resulted in moderate risk levels (2.9) for both this risk.

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