Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Florida are helping a company develop a small plastic pouch designed to make produce safer. The pouch releases chlorine dioxide gas, which eliminates Escherichia coli bacteria and other pathogens from the surfaces of fruits and vegetables.
The pouches are about half the size of a credit card and can be packed into shipping containers. The manufacturer, Worrell Water Technologies of Delray Beach, Florida, hopes to market them to wholesalers and packers of produce in the United States and overseas.
Plant pathologist Jinhe Bai and his colleagues at ARS’s U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida, worked with Worrell to develop the pouch.
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