Fogging vs immersion techniques for sustainable pathogen inactivation on stainless steel surfaces using commercial sanitizers

Abstract

Fogging or aerosolization can be considered a sustainable method for hygiene in the food environment, based on the diffusion of a fine mist into the air using liquid disinfectant, enabling the decontamination step to have three-dimensional coverage, reaching even difficult-to-access areas. This study aimed to evaluate the decontamination process and microbiological inactivation of three pathogens: Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. It compared fogging with traditional immersion methods using two commercial sanitizers: one with sodium hypochlorite (200 ppm) and the other with peracetic acid (108 ppm). Stainless steel surfaces were tested over four time points for 15 min. Fogging with the sodium hypochlorite-based disinfectant reduced S. aureus by 4.4 logs and S. Typhimurium and E. coli by at least 5 logs. The peracetic acid-based disinfectant achieved a reduction of 5.4 logs for S. aureus and at least 6 logs for S. Typhimurium and E. coli. In addition to the effect on microbial inactivation, the Fogging technique resulted in a reduction in the consumption of sanitizing solution by approximately 50% compared to the immersion process, after 15 min. The results of this study show that the decontamination step using fogging of commercial sanitizers can be of great assistance in microbiological control in factories and an alternative to be explored reducing the quantity of water in relation with traditional immersion method.