Viral disinfection of organic fresh produce comparing Polyphenon 60 from green tea with chlorine.

Contamination of fresh produce with enteric viruses is a matter of concern because viruses may persist in food surfaces under normal storage conditions for long periods. Chlorinated compounds are the most common substances used to disinfect fresh produce but they present some disadvantages such as the formation of by-products. In this study, green tea extract (GTE), a natural compound from Camellia sinensis , was tested to disinfect fresh produce contaminated with 8 log 10 of human adenoviruses (HAdV) and 6 log 10 of infectious murine noroviruses (MNV), a surrogate of human norovirus. Chorine was also employed to compare the action of GTE with a common disinfectant. Results demonstrated that, although GTE was not as efficient as chlorine, it demonstrated good effectiveness to decrease the amount HAdV in fresh produce. Both disinfectants were more effective than just using water to reduce the load of infectious HAdV. It was also observed that both chlorine and GTE were more effective to remove HAdV than MNV, probably due to different interactions of the viruses with the plant tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]