Lessons learned and future endeavors

Water is a potential source of contamination of leafy vegetables that have been implicated in food-borne outbreaks. Thus, there is an urgent need to support technologies designed to ensure food safety, including those that disinfect irrigation and processing wash water.

For this lecture, results will be shown for ozone, UV, and membrane filtration when evaluated at the lab scale. Also, results will be shown for UV with and without pre-filtration in a field trial to determine the reduction of Escherichia coli in surface water used to irrigate leafy vegetables. We found that given our case scenario, UV was the most feasible disinfection technology in terms of microbial and cost efficacies to treat surface water used for the agricultural irrigation of crops. 

Current research is looking at new possibilities to (re)use fresh water in vegetable processing more efficiently and the possible effects and solutions concerning food safety. The plans for the latest research project targeting Listeria monocytogenes will be presented. 

It is pertinent to share how to ensure safety considering the circular economy concept in food systems. The results can provide input into the minimum requirements needed for water disinfection technologies considering its use and reuse of agricultural and processing waters. 

Source: Banach, J. 2021. Safe and Save Water: Lessons learned and future endeavors. Decentralised water provisions, pharmaceutical waste removal and safe water, Risk & Resilience. AIWW 2021

Watch here the online conference on Safe and Save Water.

 

Afbeelding credits

Icon afbeelding: Hippopx - water