Virus inactivation processes: The way to ensure virus-safe products

Viruses are ubiquitous. Therefore, the viral occurrence in foods, blood derivatives, cosmetics, or biological and pharmaceutical products generated from animals, tissues or cell lines sould not be neglected. In fact, the viral contamination may arise as adventitious agents introduced by the production process, too. Since it is impossible to guarantee virus-safe animals or cell lines, virus inactivation processes have to be settle in running manufacturing processes in order to produce virus-safe products. The virus inactivation approach will be different in function of its nature and chemical composition. The introduction of theses processes, which are an added value for industrial and biotechnological products, has become mandatory (CPMP/BWP/268/95; CPMP/BWP/269/95) in the ambit of the European Union (EU). In this review we discuss the efficacy of several inactivation processes of physical (temperature, desiccation, nanofiltration, high pressure, gamma radiation) and chemical (digestions or pH) nature.