Technical comprehension paper

Time allowed one hour

1. What are the two main advantages of per acetic acid over other food contact disinfectants (2) Answer: One of the main advantages of PAA is the catalase has a lower protective activities if the PAA is used, for other disinfectants, and it increases the disinfection ability. The other advantage is the sensitivities of decoated and demineralized spores to PAA. PAA has a higher penetration power than other disinfectants due to its molecular size.

2. What is the active ingredient in per acetic acid- i.e. the thing that kills bacteria(1) Answer: The resistance of microorganism could be reduced due to the radical oxidation characteristic of the PPA.

3. What was the ATCC number of B stearothermophillus used?(1) Answer: The ATCC number of B stearothermophillus was 7953

4. What was the log reduction after 2 hours with 0.025% per-acetic acid on Cl. Sporogenes ATCC7955 (2) Answer: the log reduction was -4.2

5. What is the effect of pH on the effectiveness of per acetic acid(1) Answer: the highest effectiveness of PPA is about 1.5 to 2.0

6. How are the spores affected by the per-acetic acid (2) Answer: When the concentration of PPA increases, the amount of spores decreases. When the spores expose to the PPA for a longer period, the amount of spores decreases. If transition metal ions and chelators co-exist with the PPA, the disinfection effect of the PPA will be affected and the effectiveness will be lowered. Also, when the antioxidants, such as Thiosulfate, exists, the neutralization effect will minimized the disinfecting nature of PPA.

Total 9 marks