Is Ozone Effective Against E. coli?
Abstract:
Porcine intestines harvested, cleaned, boxed and ready for commerce using industry standard procedures were tested for the presence of general aerobic bacteria and generic E. coli. Half of the samples collected were subjected to aqueous ozone at a concentration of about 2.3 ppm and the other half of the samples were left untreated. All samples were analyzed and it was found that the treated samples had an average of 1.9 log reduction of general aerobic bacteria and a 1.7 log reduction of E. coli when compared to the untreated samples. In general, any antimicrobial that can achieve greater than a 1 log pathogen reduction is considered to be significantly efficacious.
Conclusion:
This was the first time I had ever checked the microbial status of our bung product after all washing processes were complete and although I would hypothesize that they would still have large microbial loads I was surprised by the amounts I actually found.
Application of 2.3 ppm aqueous ozone to these products clearly had a significant effect relative to decreasing total microbial loads.
Ozone is consumed when it destroys a bacterial cell, therefore it can be stated that the extremely high microbial loads on these products consumed all ozone applied and by increasing the concentration of ozone a greater log reduction can be achieved.