A New Use for Those White Wine Spritzers?

In a year dominated by news of food poisoning outbreaks and recalls, Oregon State University food scientist Mark Daeschel has a tip for consumers: Down a glass of Chardonnay with that burger.

Wine, particularly white wine, the fermentation expert discovered, kills E. coli, salmonella and other potentially deadly bacteria in the stomach, or at least in the model stomach he created in his lab.

Daeschel’s research, which he is aiming to publish in January in the Journal of Food Science, builds on earlier anti-microbial research and on anecdotal evidence that suggested drinking wine with a meal helped some people avoid food poisoning.

He’s now hoping his lab discovery will find its way into America’s kitchens. The microbiologist and part-time vintner is developing a new kind of white wine spritzer. But rather than a drink to be sipped, it will be a Chardonnay-based disinfectant to be sprayed on countertops.

Although Daeschel’s discovery could be an appealing new tool in the California wine industry’s campaign to tout the health benefits of its product, officials say they’re not sure what to make of his idea.

“We like to associate wine with a lifestyle that’s a bit more romantic,” said Gladys Horiuchi of the Wine Institute in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, Daeschel’s findings have intrigued some Central Valley farmers who are struggling to turn a profit on a surfeit of Chardonnay, said Barry Bedwell, general manager of grape brokerage Ciatti & Co.

Daeschel said several California wine companies also have expressed interest in licensing the formula he is developing for his university as a means of disposing of their surplus or substandard wine.

He declined to identify those companies.

“Apparently there is a lot of Chardonnay in California that they don’t know what to do with,” Daeschel said.

For their part, food-safety experts greeted the discovery with a degree of skepticism.

“I would be much more confident in the work if it had been conducted on a biological system,” such as a rat, said Carl Winter, director of the Food Safe program at UC Davis. There are a host of other good and bad bacteria in a functioning stomach, he added, that might affect the outcome.

For now, Winter said, the best advice for consumers is to make sure their food is fully cooked and to use better handling procedures to avoid cross-contamination of other foods.

“There’s a lot of creative solutions out there,” Winter said. But, he said, “We don’t need to be looking for a silver bullet, when there are tools already out there to minimize our risk” of illness.Scientists all over the U.S. are scrambling to create novel anti-bacterial treatments to prevent food-borne illnesses. They’re putting everything from spices to milk to mouthwash on animals and food to kill germs.

For his experiments, Daeschel recreated a human stomach using a plastic bag that contained gastric juices and food. Strains of various pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella were added along with 50 grams of wine -- in some tests Chardonnay and in other tests Pinot Noir, a red wine.

The Chardonnay was more effective, Daeschel discovered, killing salmonella bacteria in less than 30 minutes and E. coli bacteria in less than an hour. The Pinot Noir took as long as 90 minutes to neutralize the same bacteria.

He found that the white wine’s high malic and tartaric acids, along with its high alcohol content, attacked and killed the germs.

The same results, he said, could not be accomplished with other low-acid libations such as beer or unfermented grape juice.

Daeschel acknowledged that there is no guarantee that drinking wine with a meal will prevent illness. And, he said, key to the success of his experiment was the proper ratio of food to wine.

He acknowledged another potential pitfall, as well: Badly contaminated food might reach a human’s small intestine before the wine has a chance to do its work.