I tried a few years ago to get Costa Rican exporters of fruit to soak their produce in ozone before going into cargo ships and to spray them with ozone water once on board. Costa Rica uses more pesticides (by far) than any other country, and soaking their fruit in ozone would also remove the pesticide residue from the fruit. Ozone would also kill the bacteria and pests that eat their food en transit and causes huge losses due to spoilage. Forever Ozone is a small company and I didn’t have the money to pull off such a venture, but some day I will. Not only to help the exporters, but also consumers. It’s actually a win-win. The exporters get to reduce their spoilage from 30% to 1% and the consumers get to eat pesticide free food. 

Ozone is being used on the down low to kill pests in food storage. I’m always reading the latest news on that subject. I like to see how ozone is being used in industry to prevent food spoilage and also pest control.  Here are a few of the recent stories that caught my attention:

Company eliminates pests from stored grain with ozone and reduce costs

“The researcher explains that “ozone is triatomic (molecule composed of three atoms) oxygen, which is very reactive and has the virtue of not polluting or leaving toxic residues, while eliminating odors and fungi and sanitizing grains such as corn, beans, wheat, sorghum and rice,” says researcher Llanes Ocaña.

Moreover, the process replaces chemicals like phosphine and methyl bromide used in traditional spraying methods, which are toxic and carcinogenic.”

Ozone is cheaper than chemicals, and it doesn’t poison us, so why doesn’t Industry jump on the ozone bandwagon and sing kumbaya with us health nuts and save some money along the way?  You figure it out. #sad