Ozone, the triatomic allotrope of oxygen is one of the most destructive oxidative agents known and has many industrial uses. Its importance to food and beverage industry is increasingly being realized and ozone is the most widely accepted water disinfectant to day. The high oxidative power of Ozone ensures that all contaminating microbes are decimated, making the product safe for consumption. Compared to Chlorine, the well established disinfectant used currently in most public protected water supplies, Ozone does not produce the dangerous organochlorine compounds or leave any residues due its decomposition to oxygen. Added to this, Ozone can also remove higher levels of Manganese, make cyanide less toxic and decompose urea present in water..
"Middleton said that an added benefit of using ozone in the food and drink processing sector is that it is environmentally friendly, with any residual ozone decomposing to oxygen. In terms of vapourised hydrogen peroxide, she added, it is also rapidly broken down to water vapour and oxygen, and thus leaves no problematic residues.She said that these whole room disinfection techniques can be used daily or part of the periodic cleaning and disinfection procedures that occur monthly – it depends on the output of the processor involved or the level of decontamination required.She said the methods might also only be employed when decontaminating an area after a pathogen contamination incident".
Unlike Chlorine, Ozone needs to be generated on site and generators of different capacity are readily available, compact in size. Where ever power is easily available or cheap, Ozone is the preferred choice as a disinfectant. Ozone has bad as well as good credentials when it comes to human health. Its presence in the upper atmosphere saves man from the dangers of UV exposure from the Sun while as a pollutant near earth's surface it is a health hazard. As Ozone at concentration as low as 0.2-0.3 ppm can achieve disinfection, its use is not considered a hazard for users.
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