4.6.1 Disinfectingagents± total service
The producers of disinfectants are continuouslyworking on newformulations
and new activecomponents and newtotalservice concepts to serve their
customers. Ecolab, a producer of cleaning and sanitising solutions
(www.ecolab.com),offersa complete farmto forkapproach concerningthe
foodsafety of the products of theircustomers calledECO-SHIELD.Other
suppliers suchas Johnson Diverseyand Alconoxofferthe samekindof total
serviceconcepts. By offering these kindsof product, a greatresponsibilitylies
withthe manufacturers of disinfectants to prescribethe rightconcentrationsand
procedures for applicationin orderto avoidan increasein (pseudo)resistant
pathogenic microorganismsin factory environments.
4.6.2 Incorporationof disinfectants
Where possible, disinfectants become integrated with, e.g., processing
equipment, packagingmaterial or sanitary devices(Stekelenburg and Hartog,
2002;Chung et al., 2003). Theadvantageis that growth of (pathogenic)
microorganismsis continuouslyinhibited as longas the disinfectantremains
active. The disadvantages are a decreasedactivity in time as a resultof
biological breakdownor uptake by the environment.Anotherissueis that there
is a risk that personnel will becomenegligent withregardto factoryhygiene,
resultingin an unwantedchangeof attitude.
4.6.3 Objectivemonitoringtools
Process monitoringwill becomemoreand more commonsense.Currently it is
possible to monitoron-line physical and chemical parameters suchas flow,
conductivity, pH, temperature, turbidity, concentration and pressure.
Developments are ongoing for new sensors such as Isfets (ion selective
transistors)usedfor specificion concentrations(vanAsseltet al., 2002) or
biosensors basedon oxygenyeastcellsusedfor the determinationof ethanol in
beverages(Rotariuand Bala,2003).For monitoringmicroorganismsa rangeof
on-linemonitoringdevices suchas flowcytometry (e.g.Bactoscan)and ATP
couldbe applicable. However,the mainissuefor these methodsis the detection
limit, whichis in most caseshigherthan 103 cfu mlˇ^1 (http://www.foss.dk/).
Thisimpliesthat the methodis currently useful onlyin emergenciesto stop the
process(i.e. that oncethe methodgenerates a positivesignal,the processcannot
be changedor optimised,onlystopped)and not as a monitoringdevice. It is
expected that the accuracyof the methodswill improve, but to whatextentwill
dependon the demandsfrommarket and government.
4.6.4 Genomics
A relatively new developmentin the study of microorganismis genomics. Since
the first microbial genome sequence was published in 1995,genomics causeda
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