The World Health Organization has released concerning numbers: every year food-related diseases affect 1 in 10 people worldwide, leading to up to 420,000 deaths.
Some of the most frequent products spreading such diseases are eggs and poultry. These striking data lead to the urgent need for disinfection systems that can assure food sanitation. However, the commonly used chemical disinfectants can lead to microbial resistance, as well as severe side effects for the consumers.
Eshet Eilon, in collaboration with the Agricultural Engineering Center of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture Volcani Institute, has developed a series of machines which allow for dry-steam disinfection for either fresh or processed food, as well as plants, eggs, poultry and medical marijuana.
The use of a unified dry heat stream applied on either fresh or processed food has strong antimicrobial effects. Studies have shown that dry steam machines achieve high disinfection rates, with no damage to the product.
SAFE EGGS, WITH NO CHEMICALS
One in 20,000 eggs is infected with Salmonella, therefore several methods have been tested for eggs disinfection, including washing techniques with use of chemicals, as well as pasteurization or irradiation. However, all of these methods create problems in the egg consumption.
The new Israeli technology helps disinfecting both edible and incubation eggs from microbial agents while preserving the egg’s qualities. The steam produces a deep cleaning of all layers of the egg. Thus, this methodology is effective not only for infections on the egg shell, but is used also for hatching eggs, in order to prevent chicks’ contamination.
POULTRY RESPONSIBLE FOR 30% OF INFECTIONS
In addition to egg infection, up to 30% of Salmonella cases worldwide are due to poultry infestations7. The main method used in order to prevent poultry infestation has been vaccination. However, not all strains of Salmonella and other microbial agents react to these vaccinations and some strains become treatment-resistant. The dry-steam treatment has been proven to be effective both on fresh chicken right after slaughter, as well as frozen ones. In order to achieve a uniform result on all parts of the chicken, Eshet Eilon has created a conveyor connected to a steam tunnel on which the poultry can be hung.
HIGH-DEMAND FOR CLEAN MEDICAL CANNABIS
Additional products which have also been treated on conveyors with dry steam jet include medical cannabis, as it is becoming a dominant treatment developed for oral or cutaneous use for many diseases.
Several microbial agents can attach to the leaves, leading to the infection of the plant which is then transmitted to the consumer. With the use of short steam jets, the new method is able to significantly drop bacterial counts without damaging or drying the plant.
SALADS, PINEAPPLES AND EVEN SESAME
This advanced sanitation system used for several products shows effective results after 10 to 20 seconds of dry-steam application. Analyses performed at the Agricultural Engineering Center found impressive results the dry-steam machines also for pineapple, sweet potatoes, dates, sesame, processed salads and more.
Contact us:
Mr. Avishay Tamir, Sanitation Systems Product Manager
[email protected]