New strategies to improve sprout safety

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidance documents to seed suppliers and sprout growers and implemented regular inspections of sprout growers to enforce compliance. The FDA recommendation includes washing seeds with a 20,000 ppm calcium hypochlorite solution to decontaminate the seeds before sprouting. If the surface roughness of the seed is less than the size of a bacterial cell, then the seed surface will not be a safe place for the cell to reside. It is possible that when a large number of seeds are being washed, the surface shear force on each seed, which helps to detach microbial cells from the seed surface, is less due to blockage of fluid flow by the seeds when compared to the situation in which fewer seeds are washed. A validation test is needed for a large-scale wash to evaluate the effectiveness of the sanitizer, and thorough agitation is essential to achieve better seed decontamination.