title: A mathematical model for pathogen cross-contamination dynamics during produce wash.
abstract: One of the main challenges for the fresh-food produce industry is to ensure that the produce is free from harmful pathogens. A potential area of risk is due to cross-contamination in a sanitizing chlorine wash-cycle, where the same water is used to wash contaminated as well as non-contaminated produce. However, this is also an area where effective intervention strategies are possible, provided we have a good understanding of the mechanism of cross-contamination. Based on recent experimental work by Luo, Y. et al. A pilot plant scale evaluation of a new process aid for enhancing chlorine efficacy against pathogen survival and cross-contamination during produce wash, International Journal of Food Microbiology, 158 (2012), 133-139, we have built mathematical models that allow us to quantify the amount of cross-contamination of Escherichia coli O157:H7 from spinach to lettuce, and assessed the efficacy of the associated wash-cycle protocols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Munther
authors.affiliation: Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Yaguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jianhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Felicia M G
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Magpantay
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA. Electronic address: p.srinivasan35@csuohio.edu.
authors.forename: Parthasarathy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D002713:Chlorine; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003666:Decontamination; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000254:growth & development*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D059022:Food Safety; D018545:Lactuca / Q000382:microbiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018724:Spinacia oleracea / Q000382:microbiology*; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D004202:Disinfectants; D014867:Water; D002713:Chlorine
keywords: Cross-contamination; Mathematical modeling; Produce wash-cycle