The organisms that drive risk here
- E. coli O157:H7 — leafy greens and sprouts
- Salmonella — melons, tomatoes, sprouts and irrigation routes
- Listeria — packing house environment and cut product
- Spoilage moulds and bacteria driving shrink
Controlling these is not primarily a chemistry problem — it is a consistency problem. The chemistry that fails an audit is almost never the chemistry that was specified; it is the chemistry as actually mixed, at the concentration actually present, on the schedule actually followed. Onsite generation removes the largest single variable by producing the solution at a set concentration every time.
Where it is used
- Wash and flume water dosing at 50–100 ppm with residual maintained
- Hydrocooler water treatment
- Dump tank treatment
- Packing line, belt and roller sanitation
- Bin, crate and tote washing
- Cold room and packing hall fogging
- Irrigation water dosing within potable limits
What it replaces
- Chlorine dosing that loses residual rapidly under organic load
- Peracetic acid wash systems
- Chlorine dioxide generation
The honest position: none of these products are useless, and each has applications where it remains the right choice. What changes with onsite generation is the default — the bulk of routine sanitation moves to a chemistry that is cheaper per litre, safer to handle, gentler on equipment and impossible to run out of.
Compliance and audit position
- FSMA Produce Safety Rule — agricultural water requirements
- Harmonized GAP and GlobalG.A.P. audit criteria
- FDA 200 ppm food-contact limit
- Wash water antimicrobial residual monitoring expectations
Full citations and downloadable material are on the regulations page, and the sector-specific research citations are collected in the research hub.
Where the money comes from
- Shrink reduction from extended shelf life is usually the largest single line
- Cross-contamination control protects against the recall scenario
- No chemical delivery dependency during harvest peak
- Water reuse becomes more defensible with maintained residual
Implementation SOP
The written procedure for this sector, in sequence:
- Maintain a measurable free chlorine residual in wash water at all times
- Monitor continuously — organic load consumes the oxidiser fast
- Set dwell time by commodity
- Sanitise contact surfaces between lots
- Treat hydrocooler and dump tank water on the same basis
- Record residual, pH and turnover; these are what auditors examine
The step everyone skips
Precleaning. Hypochlorous acid is an oxidiser, and oxidiser consumed by organic soil is not available to kill anything. A programme that sanitises dirty surfaces will underperform regardless of what the label says.
Questions
Which system do we need for a produce & packing operation?
It depends on daily volume and peak draw rather than on facility size. Most single-site operations in this sector are served by the EcoloxTech 300; multi-line and high-volume operations move to the EcoloxTech 1200 with buffer storage.
Do we need the EPA-registered product as well?
If your protocol, auditor, insurer or regulator specifies an EPA-registered disinfectant, then yes — HOCl-AS200, Reg. No. 101112-1. Many sites run both: generated solution for volume cleaning and sanitising, registered product where the claim must be on a label.
How do we prove it works to an auditor?
Baseline environmental swabs before implementation, the same swabs afterwards, concentration verification records, and the citation pack from our research hub. That combination is evidence rather than assertion.
What is the payback period?
It depends on your current chemical spend and volume, but most commercial installations in this sector recover the equipment cost inside the first two years, and often considerably sooner once the second-order savings are counted.
The seven-part programme
Pathogens — Produce & Packing
The organisms that actually drive risk in this sector, what makes each one hard, and where HOCl fits in controlling them.
ReadApplications — Produce & Packing
Every point in the operation where generated hypochlorous acid does useful work, with the concentration each one calls for.
Readvs. Chemicals — Produce & Packing
An honest comparison against the quats, chlorine and peracetic acid programmes this typically replaces — including where they still win.
ReadCompliance & Audits — Produce & Packing
The regulations, standards and audit criteria that apply, and the documentation that satisfies them.
ReadROI & Savings — Produce & Packing
Where the money actually comes from, including the second-order savings buyers routinely underestimate.
ReadImplementation & SOP — Produce & Packing
A written standard operating procedure: sequence, concentrations, contact times, verification and records.
Read