TABLE 1.
Characteristics of the red meat processing plants and room types monitored in this study across three temporal phases
| Plant | Room type | Cleaning/sanitizing procedures | Phases | Ozone concentration (ppm) | Environment (vol [no. of treatments]) | Avg temperature (°C) | No. of samples fora
: |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PTFE chopping boards | Conveyor belts | Steel equipment | |||||||
| A | DR adjoining secondary PR | Initial washing; foaming alkaline active chlorine detergent (pH 13; >350 ppm free chlorine); final rinse | BC, ACS, AOT40 | 40 | A-DR (990 m3 [2 treatments]) | 6.8 ± 3.6 | 48 | 24 | 24 |
| A-PR (980 m3 [2 treatments]) | 5.1 ± 1.0 | 12 | 24 | 6 | |||||
| B | Secondary PR | Initial washing; foaming alkaline active chlorine detergent (pH 11; >500 ppm free chlorine); final rinse | BC, ACS, AOT20 | 20 | B-PR (400 m3 [3 treatments]) | 4.5 ± 1.5 | 18 | 18 | 45 |
| C | DR | Initial washing; foaming alkaline active chlorine detergent (pH 11; >500 ppm free chlorine); final rinse | BC, ACS, AOT4 | 4 | C-DR (1500 m3 [2 treatments]) | 7.5 ± 1.3 | 36 | 36 | 6 |
a
Surface categories sampled (average area, ∼1 m2) at each sampling time are reported for each of the four environments (A-DR, A-PR, B-PR, and C-DR). Chopping boards were made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).