One of the biggest issues currently facing the food industry is that most high care areas continue to
rely on a range of chemicals, including various forms of chlorine, branded forms of quaternary
ammonium compounds and even bromine or iodine based products, to maintain an acceptable
hygiene regime. The sanitising power of these chemicals is not in dispute but side effects are. When
chlorine based compounds combine with organic residues the results could potentially be extremely
harmful to people. Indeed, research has shown that in certain extreme cases some of these
chemicals can develop into carcinogenic and teratogenic compounds that could prove extremely
harmful to unborn children for example [1]. Thus, health and environmental concerns with chemical
use on food products are supporting the need for alternative sanitation technologies
In this sense, unlike chlorine, ozone does not react with organic materials to produce undesirable
compounds, moreover, unlike other disinfectants, leaves no chemical residual and degrades to
molecular oxygen upon reaction or natural degradation. This, coupled with the anti-microbial
properties of ozone and growing concerns with chemical use on products and residues in
wastewater, is supporting the use of ozone as a sanitizing agent within the food industry for
disinfection of surface of products through direct food contact with ozone in aqueous or gaseous
form and disinfection of equipment.