As part of TFD’s permanent commitment to improve our products, service and food safety we have implemented a state-of-the-art ozone antimicrobial treatment system. Ozone has been used for many years around the world and dwas recently approved by the U.S.A. F.D.A. as an antimicrobial treatment. (GRAS approval for direct contact on food by FDA Final Rule 21 CFR Part 173.336)
Ozone occurs in nature and plays an important role in protecting the environment. Oxygen is released from plants and plankton during photosynthesis. Lighter than air it floats into the upper atmosphere where contact with ultra violet (UV) radiation from the sun and/or lightening during thunderstorms results in O3 (Ozone). Naturally occurring ozone is nature’s way of cleaning up the pollution in our environment and safely and naturally purifying the air we breathe.
Ozone leaves no hazardous residues on food or food-contact surfaces. The Ozone process auto-decomposes rapidly to oxygen adding no residues or chemical by-products to the food being treated or to the food processing water or atmosphere in which the food is produced and stored. Ozone (half-life span about 20-30 minutes) does not become part of the food product and therefore is not considered an “additive.” Just as in nature, it does its work and then disappears (reverts to oxygen).
Unlike using heat or gamma radiation which cannot discriminate between healthy cells and microbes, ozone treatment attacks and destroys only the potentially harmful microbes.
To learn more about our Ozone Anti-Microbial Treatment System, please view the full document here
