Morita K., Arisaka M.1
Department of Environmental Science and Technology Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University Korimoto 1-21-24, Kagoshima Japan, 890-0065 Tel/Fax +81-99-285-8607 E-mail: morita@bio2.agri.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
1Section of R& D, Nippon Intek, Co. Ltd.
Safety and quality control are important for food and agricultural products. In order to keep safety and quality of food and agricultural products. High Oxidation Potential water (HOP) was tried to apply for sterilization. The HOP water is generated by electrolysis with solution of salt. Characteristics of HOP water at positive side is more than 1100 mV of ORP(oxidation-reduction potential), less than 2.5pH. The HOP water is highly oxidative and produces strong microbicidal effect. By electrolysis of water which includes Cl, Cl ions in the HOP water seem to be in the form of HClO, ClO-, and Cl-, and the balance among three ions is greatly affected by pH value. According to the multiplicative effect of these ions, a stronger sterilizing effect could be attained than that of conventional water with the Cl ions at the same level of concentration. In this study, basic characteristics of HOP water for application of food and agricultural products were investigated and effect to microorganisms of food and agricultural products were measured. It was found that the HOP water was effective for various kinds of microorganisms without chemical residue.