Mortazavi Mehrad, Bains Arjan, Afsah-Hejri Leili, Ehsani Reza, LiWang Patricia J
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Merced, CA, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Merced, CA, USA.
Heliyon. 2022 Aug;8(8):e10280. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10280. Epub 2022 Aug 15.
Due to the immense societal and economic impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is one of the most important priorities at this time. The global interconnectedness of the food industry makes it one of the biggest concerns for SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. Although fomites are currently considered a low-risk route of transmission for SARS-CoV-2, new variants of the virus can potentially alter the transmission dynamics. In this study, we compared the survival rate of pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 on plastic with some commonly used food samples (i.e., apple, strawberry, grapes, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, parsley, Brazil nut, almond, cashew, and hazelnut). The porosity level and the chemical composition of different food products affect the virus's stability and infectivity. Our results showed that tomato, cucumber, and apple offer a higher survival rate for the pseudotyped viruses. Next, we explored the effectiveness of ozone in deactivating the SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped virus on the surface of tomato, cucumber, and apple. We found that the virus was effectively inactivated after being exposed to 15 ppm of ozone for 1 h under ambient conditions. SEM imaging revealed that while ozone exposure altered the wax layer on the surface of produce, it did not seem to damage the cells and their biological structures. The results of our study indicate that ozonated air can likely provide a convenient method of effectively disinfecting bulk food shipments that may harbour the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
由于新冠疫情造成了巨大的社会和经济影响，限制严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的传播是当下最重要的优先事项之一。食品行业的全球互联性使其成为SARS-CoV-2爆发的最大担忧之一。尽管目前认为污染物是SARS-CoV-2的低风险传播途径，但该病毒的新变种可能会改变传播动态。在本研究中，我们比较了伪型SARS-CoV-2在塑料与一些常用食品样本（即苹果、草莓、葡萄、番茄、黄瓜、生菜、欧芹、巴西坚果、杏仁、腰果和榛子）上的存活率。不同食品的孔隙率水平和化学成分会影响病毒的稳定性和传染性。我们的结果表明，番茄、黄瓜和苹果上的伪型病毒存活率更高。接下来，我们探究了臭氧对番茄、黄瓜和苹果表面的SARS-CoV-2伪型病毒的灭活效果。我们发现，在环境条件下，该病毒在暴露于15 ppm臭氧1小时后被有效灭活。扫描电子显微镜成像显示，虽然臭氧暴露改变了农产品表面的蜡质层，但似乎并未损害细胞及其生物结构。我们的研究结果表明，臭氧处理过的空气可能提供一种方便的方法，来有效消毒可能携带SARS-CoV-2病毒的大量食品货物。
