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| What
is Ozone and how does it work? |
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| Ozone
gas (O3) is a naturally occurring tri-atomic form
of oxygen (O2) that is formed as sunlight passes
through the atmosphere. It can be generated artificially
by passing high voltage electricity through oxygen rich
air (corona discharge), causing oxygen to break apart
and recombine in the tri-atomic form. Because oxygen
naturally seeks its normal state, ozone is an unstable, highly
reactive form of the gas. As an oxidizer, it is 51 times as powerful
as chlorine, the
oxidizer most commonly used by most food processors, and 3,100
times as fast at killing bacteria and other microbes. Ozone is
effective as
a disinfectant at relatively low concentrations and does not leave
toxic byproducts similar to those related to chlorination. Ozone
reacts with
unsaturated bonds and causes them to split, especially under acidic
conditions. Our patented vortex mixer is highly effective (98%)
at
dissolving this ozone gas into water. If exposed to a long list
of
pollutants, bacteria, viruses, spores, fungi, mold, mildew, etc.,
ozone will
react with them and destroy them. If left unreacted, ozone will
degrade
back to O2 in about 20 minutes. |
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How
can we use this?
For more than a century, ozone has been used in Europe for purifying
drinking water and is currently used in
the United States for purifying bottled water and decontaminating
cooling towers. The city of Los Angeles
currently uses ozone to purify its water supply. However, on June
23, 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration officially granted GRAS (Generally Recognized As
Safe) status to ozone for use in food
contact applications. While there was already interest among food
processors in the use of ozone for killing
microorganisms and sanitizing equipment, this FDA approval opened
the floodgates for food processors
to begin putting this exciting technology to use in their plants.
Today, meat, poultry and seafood plants are beginning to use ozonation
as a food safety measure and fruit
and vegetable packers as well as processors of fresh-cut or minimally
processed fresh fruits and
vegetables are looking at the new technology, too. The Department
of the Agriculture published an article
saying that no secondary biocide is necessary when using ozone as
it kills bacteria, viruses, spores, fungi,
mold, mildew, etc., without the need for other products. |
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