Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl) is a much safer and highly effective alternative to other chlorine based disinfectants and sanitizers. Numerous studies have demonstrated the strong antibacterial activity of HOCl on food borne pathogens on raw agricultural products and food contact surfaces. Applications of HOCl as a disinfectant for reducing microbial contamination include fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry carcasses, shell eggs, cutting boards, and food processing surfaces.
HOCl Bactericide
Some advantages of using HOCl as a bactericide are:
- HOCl is as effective as any chlorine treatment when the solution concentration is 50 to 200 ppm and ORP~750mv1 and does not require use of PPE
- It is not necessary to handle potentially dangerous chemicals, e.g. chlorine gas, chlorine dioxide, bleach or ammonia
- Pure HOCl is readily available in all 50 States from pure&clean®
- Because only water, sodium chloride and electricity are used in HOCl production, HOCl is environmentally friendly
- HOCl products with specific ORP and PH levels can be produced to meet the bactericide application requirements.
In addition to microbiocidal action on actively growing bacteria, HOCl is known to kill bacterial spores by damaging their inner membrane rendering them unable to germinate.
HOCl sanitizing washes are the most practical bactericide for decontaminating raw produce. In commercial raw produce sanitizing operations, HOCl solutions that contained chlorine compounds (with concentrations varying from 50- 200 ppm) and with contact times of 2 minutes or greater showed a decrease in the bacterial load by from <1 log colony forming units (CFU)/gram (g) to 3.15 log CFU/g. At pH of 6.0-7.5 (neutral) and (ORP~750 mV) contains primarily pure HOCl, hypochlorite ion and trace amounts of chlorine1.
The effectiveness of PH neutral HOCl as a sanitizer has been demonstrated for reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enteritidis and Listeria monocytogenes biofilms on the surface of tomato (Deza et al., 2003) and also on plastic and wooden cutting boards (Deza et al., 2007)1.
1 USDA GOV – Hypochlorous Acid Technical Evalutaion Report / Handling
pure&clean® HOCl Disinfectant Sanitizer can be diluted to lower ppm FAC strengths, see our HOCl dilution calculator.
