J Sainsbury PLC

Cold plasma is an exciting new technology with a proven potential for rapid microbial decontamination of surfaces. A plasma state is generated by applying a high voltage to a gas, transforming it into a cocktail of reactive plasma species which may have high oxidation potential and therefore considerable food decontamination potential. Prepared produce de...

Over 170 k tonnes of apples are stored annually in the UK. In the absence of post-harvest chemicals, losses due to poor quality and disease are estimated at 3-15%. The project will deliver a new engineering solution to reduce losses. By monitoring metabolic status of fruit, SafePod will allow growers to use lower storage O2 concentrations than currently a...

The food retail industry is experiencing increasing demand from consumers for UK grown fresh produce and would like to substitute imports with home produce. The demand for home grown plums cannot currently be met due to unreliable and inefficient cropping systems. This collaborative project will develop integrated new technologies that will address the ma...

To transfer knowledge of leading econometric methods from academia to the retail sector on how to rigorously measure consumer demand for ethical labels

The project brings together agronomy research, on rapid protein assays for milling wheat, with engineering of photonic sensors, image recognition & mechatronic systems. The ultimate goal is to deliver a tractor-mount scanning unit for autonomous mapping of protein content across wheat fields, to a spatial resolution better than 2 square metres at full fie...

To create and embed a tailored Environment- Human -Performance framework for the retail environment that will lead to improved store design.

Considerable amounts of fresh beef are discarded before sale and in the home because of discolouration. The subject of waste and improving economic and environmental efficiency in meat supply chains is an area of utmost importance with major opportunities for improvement.. The proposal aims to enable innovations that will increase efficiency in processing...

The aim of the project it to reduce and ultimately eliminate labelling, date coding and packaging mistakes caused by human error in the produce and wider food supply chain. Each year many millions of pounds of produce is disposed of before it reaches the customer because it cannot be sold due to the information or date code on the pack being incorrect, wh...

This project has been instigated by Sainsbury's, working with their suppliers Tayto Group Limited and SK Foods, and Teesside University. The aim is to reduce oil use and degradation in the manufacture of fried foods, based on two product groups: crisps and snacks, and chilled fried ethnic snacks. The objectives of the project are: - To optimise oil manage...

This project aims to improve the efficiency, sustainability and safety of bagged salad production, worth over £450M retail sale value in the UK, through more effective processing of fresh produce. A novel washing process designed to be installed in commercial salad washing systems will be investigated. The process has the potential to extend the shelf lif...