Disinfectant-sprayer for Foods and Enhanced Sanitation (D-FENS)

The US Army has primary responsibility for food safety in the US military. As such it seeks to protect the Warfighter from contaminants and the spread of food borne illness. This is achieved mainly through preventive techniques aimed at improving the sanitation of food, food-processing equipment, and food preparation surfaces. A new process for producing aqueous chlorine dioxide for surface disinfection and decontamination has been developed by scientists at the Natick Soldier-R, D&E; Center to combat against contaminated against surfaces, equipment and fresh food. D-FENS (Disinfectant-sprayer for Foods and ENhanced Sanitation) uses novel chemistry for the generation of chlorine dioxide with a collapsible spray bottle; making ClO2 available for use in convenient, small, batch sized delivery systems. When combined with a collapsible spray bottle this technology eliminates the logistics issues associated with chlorine dioxide by providing a small, light weight "just add water" system. ClO2 is a powerful but user and food friendly compound for sanitizing and disinfecting solid surfaces. Unlike many other common sanitizers/disinfectants ClO2 will kill mold, fungus, and spores along with bacteria while still being safe enough to use with and around food products. However chlorine dioxide normally requires continuous onsite process generation by means of capital intensive ClO2 generating equipment. This conventional process used for generating CIO2 is costly and cumbersome and completely unnecessary with D-FENS. Benefits Disinfectant-sprayer for Foods and ENvironmentally-safe Sanitation (“D-FENS”) is a “green technology” with performance and logistics advantages over COTS items. Eliminates need to use/transport acids, and lightweight packaging eases logistics and reduces weight, cube, fossil fuel use and carbon footprint. Generates ClO2 on-site from safe dry powders mixed with water. ClO2 is EPA-registered & FDA-approved. Controlled, point-of-use generation of ClO2 without transporting the weight of water. Surface disinfectant treatment by spraying, pouring, or immersion. No unpleasant odor. Unlike conventional methods for producing chlorine dioxide, the NSRDEC process does not require the use of acids rendering the reaction products (ClO2) noncorrosive.