Dr. Peter Slade, an assistant professor at IIT and the task force coordinator, said irradiation looks promising. The process involves using low-level doses of gamma rays or electron beam irradiation to kill bacteria. And researchers are optimistic about a test on growing water before the sprouts would be harvested. If the water tested positive for a bacterium like salmonella, the sprouts would be discarded, he said. The task force hopes to have some solutions in another six months, but in the meantime, growers can used a chlorination process approved by the FDA to decontaminate seeds, he said.
Contamination comes from several sources.
About half the alfalfa seeds used by growers come from foreign suppliers, whose growing safeguards might not be as strict as in the United States, said Slade. The seeds can become contaminated in the field by feces from a salmonella-infected animal or waste water.