USE OF GASEOUS OZONE FOR SANITATION COLD ROOM STORAGE

Abstract

This work evaluated the ozone application for sanitation of a cold room used to store Minas Frescal cheese during 120 days. The microbiological quality of the air, the room walls and the room door were evaluated during 60 days with and with no addition of ozone at 0,03 mg.L-1. The air sedimentation technique was applied for the evaluation of the air quality (aerobic mesophilic microorganisms and yeasts and moulds) and the swab technique was used for the evaluation of internal surface counts of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms. Reductions of 0.81 and 1.01 log cycles in the room air were caused by air ozonation. Additionally, significant decimal reductions around 0.50 log were observed in the walls and door swabs of the cold room. Therefore, ozone gas has improved microbiological quality of the surfaces and the air of cold room. This suggests ozone as an alternative method for disinfection of rooms.

Keywords

• storage rooms
• ozone gas
• air microbiological quality