Ozone is more effective at high temperatures, at least against
fungal spores, but the range of effectiveness against fungi is much
wider than that for insects
Still, temperature may accelerate its degradation, in
cases where flow is not continuous. In this regard, it is believed that
humidified ozone enhances its efficacy against fungi, but the effect
of humidity is poorly understood and has provided contradictory
results
However, ozone
is an effective sanitizer only against well-hydrated microbial cells
In addition, ozone acts on fungal cells through
lysis
and the presence of water may accelerate
its reaction with organic substances
For wheat,
reported that even
0.33 mg of ozone/g of wheat/min (approx. 6000 ppm) was enough
to inactivate fungal spores within only 5 min of exposure. Similar
results have been reported for barley, for both spores and mycelia
However,
noted that the increase
of the exposure interval had a negative effect on wheat
germination; therefore ozone application should not exceed a
certain threshold. Generally, ozone can completely suppress fungal
growth on grains, at very short intervals, long before death of insects or reduction of the germination
Nevertheless, ozonation does not affect the basic quality parameters
of the treated grains, such as protein, vitamins, enzyme activity
etc., and, despite minimal changes in some properties, the commodity
remains practically unaffected when application rates are
low