SteriFx Product Bites In to Food-Borne Illness
Published Mar 11, 2008
Lab technician Dan Duzan helps his company, SteriFx, find chemicals to kill harmful bacteria in foods such as chicken before they reach the consumer.
After handling meat, many cooks wash their hands and tools to cleanse away bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli; each year, food-borne pathogens take a toll in illness, product recalls and even death.
One Shreveport start-up company thinks it can stem those problems at the source. SteriFx, a small specialty chemical company in the Intertech Science Park, has created a non-toxic antimicrobial food wash and sanitizer, FreshFx, that kills bacteria in poultry and meats at the processing plant, long before it ever reaches the table. Along with salmonella and E. coli, FreshFx also kills listeria and Campylobacter jejuni, one of the leading causes of diarrhea which affects nearly 2.4 million people and causes about 58,000 illnesses and 200 deaths each year.
How? FreshFx is a patented combination of acids that, on their own, would be toxic to humans. But combined, they are as mild as baby shampoo – so mild that humans can safely ingest it. The formula has even been approved by the USDA as a food additive for increasing shelf life of perishables.
“We have a platform technology based on compounds that are very acidic yet safe,” SteriFx founder Dr. John Dankert says. “It’s akin to putting a blowtorch on your skin to kill bacteria without burning your skin. It should be dangerous but it’s not, and that’s why we have the patent.”
Colorless and odorless, FreshFx is sold as a concentrate that can be sprayed on meat or used as a bath at most points along the processing line. With salmonella on the rise among chicken and turkey coming into plants, Dankert says FreshFx is a cost-effective solution to decontam ination for even small processors. In the first year of sales, FreshFx has already picked up 5 percent of the poultry market as clients, Dankert says.
Future plans include expanding into the beef market, and leveraging the technology for other uses such as fruit and vegetable sanitizing, personal decontamination kits for military, industrial and emergency responder use and consumer products. FreshFx is also getting favorable reviews from local veterinarians who are using it to clean animal wounds to reduce healing time. “It’s so benign, we use it to clean out wounds. You can’t normally pour antimicrobials into wounds,” Dankert says.
Funded with money from government and private investors, SteriFx had 10 employees as of early 2006. But the company is on a rapid growth trajectory. Goals for the next year include expanding product lines and adding more clients. “We’ve been too busy to pursue all the markets we’d like to,” Dankert says.
Story by Jeannie A. Naujeck
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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