Development of continuous pulsed light system for decontamination and shelf-life-extension of liquid food

与Solaris消毒公司合作，拟议的学术-工业合作研究项目寻求资金来设计、开发、表征和扩大连续脉冲光(PL)液体食品处理系统。拟议的系统将是模块化的，因此可以很容易地适应各种处理需要和愿望。针对不同种类的液体食品，将优化各种工艺和产品变量对PL去污的影响。牛奶和果汁将通过PL设备进行加工，并将监测保质期的延长和微生物的灭活。此外，还将比较PL对液体食品中营养成分和特定过敏原的影响，并将其与传统的热加工工艺进行比较。根据这些研究的经验，将从实验室规模扩大到中试规模，使液体食品的冷巴氏杀菌速度至少达到20 L/小时。该项目将探索液体食品巴氏杀菌的新途径，并将产生急需的科学数据，研究光致发光技术对牛奶和果汁的微生物和质量属性的影响。这些数据对于监管机构批准PL技术至关重要，为加拿大乳品和饮料食品行业采用该技术铺平了道路。这将改善加拿大食品的经济性、加工性、质量和食品安全，使其具有在全球市场上取得成功的竞争优势。

In collaboration with Solaris Disinfection Inc., the proposed academic-industrial collaborative research project seeks funds to design, develop, characterize and scale-up a continuous pulsed light (PL) liquid food processing system. The proposed system will be modular so that it could be easily adapted to various processing needs and desires. The effect of various process and product variables on PL decontamination will be optimized for different category of liquid food products. Milk and fruit juices will be processed through the PL equipment, and extension of shelf-life and inactivation of microbes will be monitored. Further, the effect of PL on the nutritional components and specific allergens in liquid food will be compared with conventional thermal processing. Based on the experiences from these research, scale up of the lab-scale to pilot-scale will be conducted to enable cold-pasteurization of liquid food at a minimum of 20 L/hr.This project will explore new avenues of liquid food pasteurization, and will lead to generation of much needed scientific data on the effect of PL light technology on microbial and quality attributes of milk and fruit juices. These data are critical for regulatory approval of the PL technology, paving way for its adoption by the Canadian Dairy and Beverage Food Industries. This will improve the economy, processability, quality and food safety of Canadian food products, giving them the competitive edge to succeed in the global market place.