Effects of disinfectants on inactivation of mold spores relevant to the food industry: a review

Due to the dissemination of airborne conidia and spores, molds can contaminate various surfaces. In the food industry sector, their presence and development can have health and economic implications. In order to control these undesirable microorganisms, various approaches can be used but the main one relies on the use of disinfectants. The objective of this review is to report the existing studies on the effect of various disinfectant molecules (i.e., sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, ethanol and other alcohols, hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, and quaternary ammonium compounds) on the inactivation of fungal spores. These studies were sorted depending on the targeted fungal species. Noteworthy, in the food industry, four log and three log reductions are required to claim a fungicidal activity for suspension (European Standard 1650, 2019) and surface (European Standard 13697/IN1, 2019) treatments, respectively. Most of the presented studies concerned Penicillium and Aspergillus species (44 and 31% of the literature, respectively). In general, for a given disinfection procedure, ascospores were more resistant than conidia, and Aspergillus conidia were more resistant than Penicillium ones. However, the variability of encountered molds (e.g. species, strains, physiological state) and disinfection procedures (e.g. molecules, concentrations, contact time) affected the efficacy of disinfectants.