Researchers find new way to sanitize food: UA System would gain millions from process

A food-treatment method developed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences kills illness-causing bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli and protects treated food from recontamination, researchers announced Wednesday.

The method, which involves a chemical compound used for decades in mouthwash and throat lozenges, could save lives while injecting millions of dollars into the University of Arkansas System and the state's economy, said the president of a Little Rock company developed through UAMS to produce and market the treatment method.

Curtis Coleman of Safe Foods Corp. said his company's product, called Cecure, is safe, inexpensive and promising. "We're convinced that this product indeed has the potential to impact the safety of the world's food supply," he said.

Every year, an estimated 76 million food-borne illnesses occur in the United States, causing as many as 9,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Not only could the new treatment method prevent many of those illnesses, but it could also help prevent costly food recalls, such as the 25 million-pound Hudson Foods beef recall in 1997, said Amy Waldroup, a poultry scientist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Unlike irradiation, another method used to kill harmful bacteria in food products, Cecure would not require food processors to alter their production methods, Coleman said. The result is a method that would cost producers 1 cent per chicken or pound of beef treated, compared with 5 cents to 50 cents per pound for irradiation, he said. Irradiation also does not prevent recontamination, he said.

Wednesday's announcement was the culmination of more than 10 years of research by scientists from UAMS and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said Danny Lattin, who headed the research team. When the team studied a group of chemicals called quaternary ammonium compounds, "we were overwhelmed by the potential we saw," said Lattin, now at South Dakota State University.

By 1994, that potential had led to a patent. And now, the patent has led to a business. And, said Coleman, it could be a big one. On the basis of what Coleman called conservative estimates -- an initial, 2 percent market share increasing at 1 percent a month after Cecure is introduced -- the company could see domestic gross revenues of $100 million a year within three years. When international sales are factored in, he said, "we think it has the potential to be a lot more than that." Five percent of the net sales will go to the University of Arkansas System. In addition, Coleman said, hopes are that the company eventually will build production plants and a high-tech food safety laboratory in Arkansas.

International patents and trademarks for Cecure are in place, Coleman said. He expects approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture within three months for use by fruit, vegetable and fish producers and within nine months for meat and poultry producers. The agencies could not immediately provide information on the product's approval status Wednesday.

The company also plans to develop Cecure as a consumer product that could be sprayed on foods at home, Coleman said.

Dr. Harry Ward, UAMS chancellor, called the announcement an example of the university's growing role in turning research into economic gain for Arkansas. In the past, such research advances would have been licensed to existing companies -- often ones outside Arkansas. Now, the university is working to identify research that could be patented and produced in Arkansas.

When such research is found, the university tries to attract investors to create spin-off companies, such as Safe Foods Corp., to turn research into a marketable product. "This represents a new theme for our university and for all universities in the state of Arkansas," Ward said. "Those discoveries that are patentable should be patented, and secondly, they should be brought to the marketplace. Thirdly, they should be brought to the marketplace in Arkansas."

In addition to Lattin, the Cecure research team included Philip Breen, Cesar Compadre and E. Kim Fifer, all of the UAMS College of Pharmacy; Hamid Salari, UAMS research associate; research consultant Phillip V. Engler; and Michael F. Slavik of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.