Public Funding for Hazlewood Foods Limited

This project will develop non-targeted (broad spectrum) screening methods to identify food safety contaminants and economically motivated adulteration (EMA) using advanced chemical profiling and next generation sequencing. The innovative aspect is the use of cutting edge technology platforms in the identification of unknown fraud and safety threats and emerging risks without prior-hypotheses. This will facilitate a key objective of ensuring the safety of UK consumers and protecting retailers and manufacturers from EMA, thereby building resilience into the UK Food Sector by reducing the risk and damaging impact of undetected and widespread fraudulent activities in global supply chains. The resulting outputs could revolutionise analytical testing throughout the food chain by reducing the need for costly targeted tests whilst generating greater insight into product safety and authenticity with associated economic and social benefits.

Hygiene is essential in all food manufacturing with cleaning clearly a safety critical process. To address increasing risks, for example from allergens, cross contamination, evolving microbiological resilience, etc., the industry needs new capability which is not as highly dependent on error-prone manual procedures. Automation of cleaning needs suitable sensors to directly measure fouling real-time within process equipment. Following on from a successful feasibility study this project will progress through to the creation of industrially robust sensors and control equipment, install these on a functional production plant at a major UK-based food manufacturer and gather scientific data to hygienically validate the new disruptive innovation approach. We will develop algorithms to use the sensor output thereby creating a solution to autonomously self-optimise the industry standard clean-in-place (CIP) process. Not only will Self-Optimising Clean-in-Place (SOCIP) technology address safety risks and gaps in hygienic ‘due diligence’ within food manufacturing but it will also reduce time, waste and the environmental impact associated with one of the most common processes while creating a world leading capability for the UK food process equipment industry.