The Polytechnic University of Cartagena patents a method of surface decontamination of food that increases its shelf life.
The procedure developed by researchers from the Refrigeration Engineering and Food Safety Research Group, led by Antonio López Gómez, extends the shelf life of minimally processed packaged fish, meat, salads, and fresh fruit. With this new procedure, combined with ultra-clean packaging techniques, the shelf life of Ready-to-Eat packaged foods could be doubled or tripled.
The vapors applied, which can be from rosemary, thyme, orange, or other essential oils, are natural antimicrobial agents that inactivate pathogens such as Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, or Escherichia coli, as well as spoilage flora such as bacteria, fungi, and yeast, which are responsible for product spoilage.
The registered patent refers to the method for generating these vapors and the systems (or machinery) required for their application. These vapors can be applied to food during modified atmosphere packaging, mixing with the gases when applied to the packaging.
Decontamination with essential oil vapors is compatible with the packaging of organic products and has proven effective as an alternative to washing with chlorinated water, which can leave toxic residues.
Researchers have developed, in collaboration with TECSELOR S.L. (Lorca, Murcia), the machinery to implement this decontamination system at an industrial level. Using this machinery, numerous trials have been conducted on various packaged foods with essential oil vapors, and they have proven that they effectively extend the shelf life of food, especially when this treatment is carried out in combination with ultra-clean packaging. These tests used the ultra-clean processing and packaging clean room of the Department of Food Engineering and Agricultural Equipment of the UPCT’s Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering.
The patented process, currently in the commercialization phase, was developed thanks to a project by the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and in collaboration with Tecselor S.L.
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In the images, Antonio López shows the patented machinery and researchers from his group in the UPCT’s ultra-clean processing and packaging clean room.