With increased concerns over failures in vegetable and fruit sanitation, evaluating the efficacy of widely approved chemicals is ever more important. The purpose of this study was to determine whether sanitation treatments are equally effective against indicator bacteria and human enteric pathogens on cucumber and parsley. We provide here an experimental overview on the efficacy of common sanitation methods, which are based on peracetic acid-hydrogen peroxide, sodium dichloroisocyanurate, and the quaternary ammonium compound didecyldimethylammonium chloride. The sanitizers were tested for their activity against natural populations of total aerobic microorganisms, enterococci, and coliforms, and against the enteric pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 (which was added artificially). Results revealed that compared with washing parsley and cucumbers with water, treatments with all three sanitizers were not effective, resulting in a maximal reduction of only 0.7 log CFU of Salmonella Typhimurium. These sanitizers were also not effective in removal of natural bacteria from parsley (maximal reduction was 0.7 log CFU). Sanitation of cucumber was more successful; peracetic acid showed the most effective result, with a reduction of 2.7 log in aerobic microorganisms compared with cucumbers washed with water. Still, removal of natural bacteria from cucumbers proved more efficient than the removal of Salmonella Typhimurium. This may create a debate about the necessity of the sanitation and its contribution to safety, because sanitation of some contaminated vegetables may result in an increased likelihood of foods that, although they are given good hygienic ratings due to low microbial counts, harbor pathogens.

BackgroundIn the military, outbreaks of infectious diarrhea pose a significant health problem. In this descriptive analysis of data collected by the IDF on all infectious diarrhea outbreaks between 1988–2011, we analysed temporal, seasonal, and unit-type trends in 1,192 diarrheal outbreaks in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) over a 24-year period, and described the long-term trends in seasonality and the effects of strategic preventive measures on outbreak frequency among populations at risk.ResultsWe found two distinct phases in annual outbreak occurrence. The mean annual number of outbreaks during the period 1988–1996 was 75.8 (±14.50) but dropped to 34.0 (±8.13) during the period 1997–2011 (P < 0.0001). Overall, a downward trend continued through the 1990’s, while from 2000 onwards outbreak counts fluctuated annually. A significantly higher number of outbreaks occurred during the summer season, throughout the study period. The greatest number of outbreaks occurred in deployed units, although the proportion of outbreaks in this unit type decreased over time. Accordingly, the proportion of outbreaks in training units more than doubled during the study window. When we looked at outbreak size, summer outbreaks increased in magnitude over time, and during all periods outbreaks were larger, on average, in training units than in deployed units.ConclusionsThe changing patterns in diarrheal outbreaks in the Israel Defence Forces require maintenance of a higher level of vigilance than ever before. Lack of a clear peak period require the use of all available preventive measures throughout the year. This is especially true in training units, where the increased number of outbreaks coincides with increased trainee volume, regardless of season.