Task Force on Pathogens in Sprouts.

The popularity of sprouts has grown during the last decade, but over the past five years, a dozen food-poisoning outbreaks related to sprouts have begun to reverse that trend. The sprout industry has lost sales because consumers have had concerns about pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli.

At the Illinois Institute of Technology (ITT) National Center for Food Safety, Peter Slade, assistant professor of food processing, is leading a national task force on this food safety issue. The task force includes representatives from ITT, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the International Sprout Growers Association (ISGA).

Many sprout farmers currently use calcium hypochlorite to eliminate bacteria from seeds, but organic farmers - who constitute about half the growers - resist this method, so Slade is researching alternative methods of treating seeds, such as thermal processing, electron-beam treatment, and disinfection with hydrogen peroxide or calcinated chloride. "Once we determine that a method is effective against the bacteria, we then need to learn whether the seeds still germinate at a rate of 90 percent or higher," according to Slade. So far, his testing has found promise in thermal processing and hydrogen peroxide. The next step is to look at similar methods for treating finished sprouts.

Other task force researchers are investigating antimicrobial packaging materials and are developing a quick test for bacterial contamination during the sprout-growing period - the time when bacteria multiply rapidly.

For more information, contact Peter Slade by telephone at [phone] or by e-mail at <[e-mail]>.