Plasma4Decontamination

This project aims to achieve a wider application of plasma technology as a mild surface disinfection method in the food production chain. Plasma technology is already applied in various industrial sectors (e.g. in the materials and medical industries) and is potentially an alternative to chemical and physical processes currently used to decontaminate equipment and product surfaces in the food industry.
The advantages of plasma technology here: less use of chemicals, water and energy, lower treatment temperature and energy, and a dry and residue-free process.
Despite the aforementioned advantages and proven effectiveness on a wide range of medical and food-relevant micro-organisms, there are currently no industrial applications in the food industry.
The main reasons : a lack of demonstration equipment that can be used for food applications on a relevant scale and in a flexible way, insufficient knowledge of the effects of plasma treatment on quality and nutritional parameters of food products and uncertainty about the future status of the technology with regard to legal approval (food and biocide application).
This project is based on a multidisciplinary cooperation of the knowledge institutes TU/e and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) with a number of companies from the high-tech sector and the food industry. The aim is to arrive at a number ofcombinations that can serve as a vanguard and accelerator for this technology in the agricultural and food sectors. For an effective and complete treatment of various product applications, different plasma technologies are used that vary in the activity and lifespan of the active molecules. The project aims to develop the most feasible plasma technology / product combinations into process units for practical demonstrations.