Hydrogen Peroxide from Traditional Sanitizer to Promising Disinfection Agent in Food Industry

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a powerful oxidizing agent and causes cellular oxidative damage in microbial cells. Due to its potential oxidative activity, H2O2 provides broad-spectrum activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses and has widely been used for food safety. This review comprehensively discusses current strategies for improving the disinfecting action of H2O2 in the food industry, including the combination of H2O2 with other chemical disinfectants (peroxyacetic acid, O3, sodium dodecyl sulfate, silver, and plant-derived compounds) or disinfection techniques (heat, UV, pulsed light, cold plasma, ultrasound, and modified atmosphere packaging). Moreover, the effects of these combinations on food properties and the comparison between H2O2-based treatments and non-H2O2-based treatments were also reviewed. Combining H2O2 with other chemical or physical disinfectants enhanced its antimicrobial activity and provides a promising disinfection strategy in the food industry. In most of reviewed studies, use of H2O2 at low levels had little or no effect on food quality. The combination of H2O2 with innovative disinfection agents or techniques provided promising approaches and needs more exploration in the future.