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Device
may help eliminate bacteria in food Source of Article: http://www.ift.org/news_bin/news/news_home.shtml 3/11/2009-A Purdue
University researcher has designed a device that may help eliminate bacteria
in packaged foods. The device consists of a set of high-voltage coils
attached to a small transformer that generates a room-temperature plasma
field inside a package, ionizing the gases inside. The process kills harmful
bacteria such as E. coli
and Salmonella.
By placing two high-voltage, low-watt coils on the outside of a sealed food
package, a plasma field is formed. In the plasma field, which is a charged
cloud of gas, oxygen is ionized and turned into ozone. Treatment times range
from 30 s to about five min. The longer the gas in the package remains
ionized, the more bacteria that are killed. Eventually, the ionized gas will
revert back to its original composition. The process uses only 30–40 W of
electricity, and the outside of the container only increases a few degrees in
temperature, so its contents are not cooked or otherwise altered. Other
methods of ozone treatment require adding devices to bags before sealing them
to create ozone or pumping ozone into a bag and then sealing it. This method
creates the ozone in the already sealed package, eliminating any opportunity
for contaminants to enter while ozone is created. “Conceptually, we can put
any kind of packaged food we want in there,” said Kevin Keener, an Associate
Professor in the Dept. of Food Science, Purdue Univ. “So far, it has worked
on spinach and tomatoes, but it could work on any type of produce or other
food.” According to Keener, testing has worked with glass containers,
flexible plastic-like food-storage bags, and rigid plastics, such as
strawberry cartons and pill bottles. A patent on the technology is pending.
Keener said the next step is to develop a commercial prototype of the device
that could work on large quantities of food. The study was published in LWT - Food Science and Technology.
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