Auburn, Jan. 16---The next time you are doused with water after passing a produce stand at the grocery store, don’t be upset: It may protect you from food-borne illness.

For many years, grocery stores have applied light sprays to fruits and vegetables. In the past, this routine chore typically was entrusted to a produce-area employee, usually equipped with a spray bottle. Today, it is most likely done with an automated spray located directly above the produce that activates periodically.

Several decades ago, grocery stores sprayed vegetables with only one aim in mind: to keep them fresh.

Today, the purpose is most often twofold: to keep the produce fresh and safe. And that is why sprays today are likely to be a mixture of both water and chlorine.

Following several outbreaks of severe foodborne illness in recent years, scientists have learned that chlorine sprays are an effective safeguard against harmful food pathogens.

A recent study by the University of Georgia’s Department of Food Science and Technology reveals that simple chlorinated sprays, whether used at the grocery store or home, are effective in killing food pathogens.

Indeed, the use of chlorinated sprays is a practice not only limited to grocery stores. Many food-processing facilities, especially poultry plants, routinely incorporate chlorine sprays as an integral part of the food-processing chain.

Even so, chlorine sprays, while effective, are no panacea, and that is why experts still recommend consumers take extra precautions after bringing home the produce.

"Chlorinated water will reduce bacteria, but it will not kill everything," says Dr. Jean Weese, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System food scientist. "In research projects, we’ve soaked vegetables in chlorinated water for an hour, and they still come out with some bacteria."

That, Weese says, is the reason why consumers still need to be extra cautious when handling raw fruits and vegetables in the home.

First, the produce should be washed thoroughly.

Second, if you live with someone with a weak immune system, such as an AIDS patient, elderly person or infant, you also should consider peeling the produce. Peeling removes about 99 percent of pathogens.

Even then, you’re not completely home free, Weese says.

As an extra precaution, she also recommends wiping countertops and cutting boards where raw foods been prepared.

"Any sort of raw food, whether produce or meats, carry the threat of foodborne illness," Weese says.

"Before removing a raw product off a countertop, for example, you definitely need to make sure the surface has been wiped with a chlorine solution before placing something else, such as a baby pacifier, on it," she adds. "Otherwise, you may be placing someone in your family at risk of exposure to foodborne pathogens."

Studies also have shown the kitchen is one of the primary sources of foodborne illness. They reveal, for example, that almost 67 percent of kitchen sponges may be contaminated with fecal bacteria.

In addition, 82 percent of sink faucets are contaminated during food preparation.

Still, despite all these risks, research reveals the vast majority of Americans are not heeding these warnings. Roughly 60 percent of consumers do not wash the cutting board after cutting raw meat and before preparing fresh fruits and vegetables.

Worldwide death rates associated with foodborne illness continue to mount.

In the United States, for example, deaths from infectious diseases have increased by 58 percent since 1990 – all the more reason, Weese says, why Americans should heed the warnings of food scientists and adopt safer hygienic practices in the kitchen and throughout the home.