Ozonation as a Potential Approach for Pesticide and Microbial Detoxification of Food Grains with a Focus on Nutritional and Functional Quality

ABSTRACT

Food grains and their products must be free of insects, pests, and microbes to be considered safe for human consumption. The limitations associated with the use of harmful chemicals/pesticides for the disinfection of food grains have led to ongoing research into alternative decontamination methods such as ozone. Ozone has enormous potential for ensuring food security in the grain and food industries whilst retaining the functional and nutritional profile and augmenting the shelf life of grains and their products. Research indicates that ozone is an ecologically safe option for disinfecting food items without leaving any toxic residues in the commodities. This chapter highlights the production techniques of ozone, its mechanisms for inactivating various bacteria, insects, mycotoxin, and pesticide degradation along with qualitative changes in grains and their products. The challenges associated with the application of ozone treatment at an industrial scale have been also discussed. Ozone has the potential to be used as a green sanitization technique to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).

KEYWORDS:

• Fumigation
• food grains
• disinfection
• functional properties
• bioactive compounds

Authors contribution

Kulwinder Kaur, Preetinder Kaur, and Satish Kumar conceptualize the idea and content of the manuscript. Kulwinder Kaur and Ruchika Zalpouri have visualized the literature and written the manuscript. Satish Kumar and Preetinder Kaur reviewed the work. Kulwinder Kaur and Manpreet Singh executed the corrections.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).