New method to reduce disease & damage to potatoes during washin

Potatoes are stored in a cool, dark environment. Soil is left on skins to help maintain condition and only washed off immediately before packing & shipping to the retailer. Once washed, potatoes have a relatively short shelf life, due to warming to room temperature and other factors such as skin damage, bruising, disease etc spread during washing/drying. This problem is growing as soil deposits on potatoes get heavier due to wetter harvesting conditions & use of heavier soil types that leave more mud on potatoes. This dries and becomes very difficult to remove requiring more aggressive washing. We propose a new method of washing potatoes. Currently, potatoes tend to be barrel washed, whereby potatoes are tumbled against each other in dirty water. The mass of the potatoes impacting each other can cause significant bruising and even skin damage. The dirty water is full of micro-organisms that cause/spread disease, especially when exposed to damaged skin. We propose a different method that eliminates the need to tumble potatoes. In addition we will use ozonised water to rinse & sterilise the potato skins and exposed flesh to prevent disease.