Blue Light Over Georgia
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I'm Haylie Shipp.
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded researchers from the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety a three-year, $599,900 grant to begin a new study to investigate the effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light technology in reducing foodborne pathogens.
Food Safety News reports that food manufacturers often use chemical sanitizers on food preparation surfaces to help control the spread of foodborne pathogens. While this is typically effective in easy-to-reach areas, areas that are hard to reach may not receive the same degree of sanitation.
In comes the blue light. From Food Safety Magazine, antimicrobial blue light has shown promising results when used to disinfect hospital surfaces, but little research has been done on blue light’s possible antimicrobial applications in controlling foodborne pathogens. The UGA researchers postulate that antimicrobial blue light technology will be effective in disinfecting hard-to-reach areas in food processing and preparation facilities.
The study will focus on the effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light in combatting Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella and is set to start in Georgia June of this year.
