Using Starsan to disinfect produce?

I am always living in countries where you have to be extra careful eating produce. I usually disinfect them with a diluted bleach solution and then rinse them off. But I got to thinking. I always have a bucket or spray bottle of Starsan on hand for my brewing needs. Could I disinfect my produce by dipping it in or spraying it with Starsan and then just rinse it off after it has had sufficient contact time? Anyone do that?

You should throw this question over to Jon Herskovits at five star chemicals. He's very knowledgeable and seems to be pretty generous with the homebrew community. My hunch is, unfortunately, to say that it wouldn't work. If I understand correctly, StarSan denatures pretty quickly in the presence of organic soils, which is why you have to clean thoroughly before sanitizing. Maybe if you soak the broccoli in PBW first

Anyway, let us know what you find out. I'm in a similar situation.

Funny I was thinking about something like this yesterday. I was actually thinking about flooded basements and sanitizing with it in a compression sprayer after a nasty cleanup. (No my basement's not flooded, just something I was thinking about in case.) As well as sanitizing in the kitchen. I didn't get a chance to look at 5-star's website, but you need to see what stuff it can kill, like E-coli for example on fruit. I'd contact 5-star and find out.

Keep us posted.

I think that'd be a waste of Starsan! Malfet worries about the organic material - but in an interview with it's inventor on Basic Brewing Radio, Charley Talley seemed to be saying it can handle the organic material. Please post whatever 5 Star response you get back here.

A co-worker of mine came down with a fungus disease from eating produce (WA state). Her doctor told her 1 tsp bleach per 1 gallon of water. Let it soak for 2 minutes and then air dry. Since then I've been doing the same with an additional 1 tsp vinegar. My wife and I haven't been able to taste it.

Here's the interview.

spangltk said:

I think that'd be a waste of Starsan! Malfet worries about the organic material - but in an interview with it's inventor on Basic Brewing Radio, Charley Talley seemed to be saying it can handle the organic material. Please post whatever 5 Star response you get back here.

A co-worker of mine came down with a fungus disease from eating produce (WA state). Her doctor told her 1 tsp bleach per 1 gallon of water. Let it soak for 2 minutes and then air dry. Since then I've been doing the same with an additional 1 tsp vinegar. My wife and I haven't been able to taste it.

Here's the interview.

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If it makes him not get sick, I'd say it's not a waste. I'll listen to the interview, but the interview on BrewStong says just the opposite. StarSan works because it is an acid. The point is not that it doesn't work on organic things, but that in the presence of organic soil it quickly comes back up from it's acidic state. Because it doesn't break down matter in the way that a true cleanser will, stuff living inside bits of soil goes untouched by StarSan.

Anyway, 2/3rds of the instructions on my bottle are about how to clean a surface before the starsan even gets made. If it could bust through gunk, why would this be necessary?

Off-topic, but I gotta ask: Is there any specific reason why you need to wash the fruit you are eating?

broadbill said:

Off-topic, but I gotta ask: Is there any specific reason why you need to wash the fruit you are eating?

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Not sure who you're asking, but for Brewer_Bob and myself it is because we live in places that have a combination of bad water and endemic diseases. This isn't just germ-phobia...I've had cholera, malaria, typhoid, giardia...

And in the case of Brewerbob who is on Embassy duty in the Middle East, he had managed to surmount distribution challenges and get homebrewing supplies to him already which was quite a challenge, including Starsan. So since he can get it, he wouldn't have to also import a produce sanitizer as well. My understanding from his numerous threads is that he has a limited shipping alottment. So if it can do double duty for him all the better.

Dammit! I just placed an order last night on line for some stuff...

The 'main' things I needed were beer line and star san.. Remembered the beer line... This thread just reminded me about the star san! Now I gotta wait till the next drive into town for it (50 miles)!

Shoulda waited till this morning to place the order, when I wasn't

MalFet said:

If it makes him not get sick, I'd say it's not a waste. I'll listen to the interview, but the interview on BrewStong says just the opposite.

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Interesting! do you have a link to that episode?

spangltk said:

Interesting! do you have a link to that episode?

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Voila http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/469

It depends on what you are looking for. 5-star will not be allowed to publicly make claims that have not been officially tested. What we all do on our own is our own business though!

The other thing is that it depends on what specific pathogen you are looking to combat. Star-san is very effective against bacteria (think E. coli), limited effectiveness against fungal organisms (think nasty fuzzy stuff we don't get here in the north), almost no effectiveness against viruses (think Hepatitis). I have not seen any information regarding protozoans (Giardia), so I can't comment on that.


Luckily bleach is effective against all of the above, which is why it is the main reccemondation.

During my time in Bolivia we would do an iodine soak, and always boiled our water.

Hope the OP is safe and sound, given the events in Libya the last few days.

It is insane here. As I type this I hear heavy automatic and artillery fire along with the yells of thousands of people. Tracer rounds flying overhead. Trying to get folks out. It is not easy. I have evacuated my house. I may never see my homebrew gear again.

Dang. Very sorry about your house and gear. Hope you are okay and stay safe.

As for cleaning/disinfecting produce, there has been a lot of research into making fruits and vegetables safe in difficult conditions. Your best bet is a one-two combination of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. It doesn't matter which gets spritzed first, but using both makes them significantly more effective. You probably already have both on hand and both are food safe and don't leave a detectable taste.

In her tests, she deliberately contaminated clean fruits and vegetables with Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli O157:H7 -- all capable of inducing gut-wrenching gastroenteritis. On its own, the hydrogen peroxide was fairly effective against all three germs, she found. But the best results came from pairing the two mists. For instance, she told Science News Online, "If the acetic acid got rid of 100 organisms, the hydrogen peroxide would get rid of 10,000, and the two together would get rid of 100,000."

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Full article: Science News Online Sept. 28, 1996, How to Disinfect Your Salad

Brewer_Bob said:

It is insane here. As I type this I hear heavy automatic and artillery fire along with the yells of thousands of people. Tracer rounds flying overhead. Trying to get folks out. It is not easy. I have evacuated my house. I may never see my homebrew gear again.

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Not a lot of info is making it out, but things sound really, really dire. I don't think I'm alone in keeping you, as well as the whole of Libya, in my thoughts and prayers. I appreciate you checking in, and hope you're staying safe.