Fresh Produce - Dehydrated Lime Wash

Hi all,

Following an audit of a potential new(vegetable) supplier in Africa, I'm looking to get more information on dehydrated lime wash.

The ratio used is 600g dehydrated lime to 150L of water.

My understanding is that it is used to reduce micro load on the vegetables, however I'm not sure why a more mainstream wash like chlorine isn't used instead.

Any comments would be very welcome!

Best regards

John

I've not heard of it being used but I can understand why they wouldn't be desperate to use chlorine.  Chlorine forms chlorates during the process which are currently subject to a reduced MRL in the EU due to potential health impacts.  Additionally, all the research I found when I was using chlorine washers seemed to indicate the chlorine was mainly there to keep the water sweet rather than to kill bacteria on the surface of the produce, that is important though, no point cleaning produce with dirty water.  I suppose the question is on the alternatives.  I've never heard of dehydrated lime being used but like anything, where is the validation?  Whoever is supplying it must have tested it in controlled conditions to see if it works.  If that is successful then I'd so some in house validation using an indicator organism or group of organisms etc.