The efficacy of different sanitizers against MS2 bacteriophage introduced onto plastic or stainless steel surfaces

The virucidal activities of 11 prepared disinfectant solutions (active ingredients of household sanitizers) and 10 household sanitizers against bacteriophage MS2 on plastic and stainless steel surfaces were studied. Among the prepared sanitizers, 70–90% ethanol and ethanol-based disinfectants resulted in 1–2.5 log PFU/mL reductions on both surfaces. The 70% isopropanol and isopropanol-based formula reduced MS2 by 0.7–1.5 log PFU/mL on both surfaces. Other disinfectants, containing 0.1% benzalkonium chloride (BAC), 0.5% hydrogen peroxide, or 4% acetic acid, showed significant (P < 0.05) lower log reductions (−0.17-0.55 log PFU/mL) compared with other treatments. At room temperature, the virucidal activities of 70% ethanol on plastic (1.46–1.64 log PFU/mL reductions) and stainless steel (0.84–0.93 log PFU/mL reductions) surfaces were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by the treatment time (30–600 s). However, 85% ethanol-treated groups showed significant (P < 0.05) higher log reductions in 60 and 600 s treated groups (1.69–2.24 log PFU/mL) compared with those in 30 s treated groups (0.92–1.32 log PFU/mL). Their virucidal activities were further examined at low temperatures (4 and 8 °C). We observed that the surface inactivation efficacies were not affected by the low temperatures. In addition, the virucidal activities of household sanitizers revealed that sanitizers with 1.84% (pH = 12.5, ∼17,500 ppm free-chlorine concentrations) or 3% (pH = 13.1, ∼38,100 ppm free-chlorine concentrations) sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) reduced 4.15–6.23 log PFU/mL MS2 on hard surfaces after 60 s contact time. Furthermore, an approximately 1.5 log PFU/mL reduction was observed in groups treated by sanitizer H (active ingredients: 58% ethanol + 0.1% quaternary ammonium compound). Household products with BAC or organic acid resulted in −0.28-0.33 log reductions on two surfaces after 30 or 60 s treatment. Therefore, the use of ethanol and NaClO-based products should be considered as a potential surface decontamination strategy in the food industry.