Chicken plants to test bacteria treatment system
Troy farm will spray ozone on poultry as method seeks FDA approval
LAURA LEE
Staff writer
Gold Farm Natural Foods of Troy will be one of two poultry plants in the nation to test ozone as a method to kill bacteria.
Salt Lake City-based Cyclopss Corp. will begin field testing its Eco-Pure Food Safety System at the Troy plant and Murray's Chickens Inc. in South Fallsburg in February.
Over a six-month period, 600 chickens at each plant will be sprayed with ozone-treated water.
The technology has been granted "generally recognized as safe'' status by the Food and Drug Administration, but before it can be approved for commercial use, it must be tested in a working plant.
"We're very excited about it; we think it's the future,'' said Steve Gold, president of Murray's Chickens and Gold Farms.
Gold said he contacted Cyclopss about the project after doing research on food safety.
"We make all-natural products,'' Gold said. "We want to be the forerunner in the way we process chicken.''
According to Cyclopss, ozone can rid food of microorganisms 3,000 times faster than the chlorine currently used in food processing, and unlike chlorine, it leaves no chemical residue. Once it is exposed to food, ozone reverts back to oxygen.
Gold said he believes the public will be more willing to accept food products treated with ozone than with irradiation, which was recently approved by the FDA.
"People are very afraid of irradiation,'' he said. "Ozone doesn't affect the flavor and it doesn't glow in the dark.''
Irradiated chicken would also be more expensive than chicken treated with ozone, Gold said.
"An irradiation system costs $3-4 million, compared to $250,000 for an ozone system,'' he said. "With radiation you need all the shielding; you have to build a whole fallout shelter.''
After the initial investment, the ozone treatment should be cheaper than chlorine, Cyclopss spokesman Richard Olsen said.
"Ozone can't be stored; it has to be generated on site,'' he said. "Obviously, there will be an initial investment, but it will end up being cheaper than chlorine because it does not require transportation and storage.''
The test is being funded by New York State Gas and Electric. The two plants will supply the poultry. The chicken being tested will not be sold. The 1,200 chickens are only a fraction of the company's 30,000-chicken-a-day production, Gold said.
If the technology is approved by the FDA, the plants will have the option of buying the already-installed equipment.
Olsen said he does not know how long it would for final FDA approval
First published on Wednesday, January 21, 1998
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