1. Caudill Seed Inc.1 Sprout Safety Requires Multiple Interventions Application of good agricultural practices Controlled storage and transport of sprouts and seeds Intensified microbiological inspection of seeds Hold and release testing of sprouts Adherence of GMP’s for fresh produce No pooling of samples Seed treatment

2. Caudill Seed Inc.2 The Commercial Disinfection of Sprouting Seeds in a Controlled Atmosphere Seed treatment is only one of six critical steps in the process for Safe Sprouts. The process Caudill Seed is employing has proven to be robust. This is the fourth in a series of process evaluations.

3. Caudill Seed Inc.3 The Commercial Disinfection of Sprouting Seeds in a Controlled Atmosphere The process was evaluated on three (3) seed varieties (alfalfa, clover and onion) Three (3) pathogens: EC 0157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes

4. Caudill Seed Inc.4 The Commercial Disinfection of Sprouting Seeds in a Controlled Atmosphere Pathogenic reference inoculums, seed inoculations and post process evaluations of the 30 inoculated seed sachets were prepared and analyzed by McCoy & McCoy Labs Inc. Madisonville, Kentucky. K. Rajkowski USDA/ARS (Wyndmoor, PA) was consulted for clarification of the published microbiological procedure.

5. Caudill Seed Inc.5 The Commercial Disinfection of Sprouting Seeds in a Controlled Atmosphere Construction, design, internal configuration and process parameters were developed by Caudill Seed Inc. (Louisville, KY). The process chamber is equipped with 16 temperature thermocouples and 6 atmospheric monitors capable of monitoring and controlling the chamber condition as well as monitoring the conditions inside the bag.

6. Caudill Seed Inc.6 Results of the Process Evaluation EC 0157:H7 - Mean population log reduction across three (3) seed varieties = 4.66 log Salmonella typhimurium - Mean population log reduction across there (3) seed varieties = 2.54 log Listeria monocytogenes - Mean population log reduction across there (3) seed varieties = 4.90 log

7. Caudill Seed Inc.7 Conclusions (1) Physical characteristics of seed coats may contribute to microbiological loads. Bulk densities of seed variety may affect post process recovery results. Placement of sachets was performed by random selection.

8. Caudill Seed Inc.8 Conclusions (2) The three previous process evaluations that were conducted validated the current results with the following exceptions noted: only alfalfa seeds were inoculated no recovery media (XLD, PALCAM and Rainbow 0157 agar) was utilized in the evaluation

9. Caudill Seed Inc.9 Conclusions (3) post process evaluation sample size was smaller the process was conducted in a smaller chamber that contained only 17 pallets of seed