Public Funding for Bakkavor Foods Limited

Processing areas in factories making chilled fresh foods are maintained at low temperatures to manage food safety and quality. The management and control of these chilled environments is compex and not well understood. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap and develop air distribution systems that make maintaining the chilled conditions as efficient as possible thus minimise the energy consumed with the concommitant benefits to the environment and manufacturing efficiency.

There is a significant need to reduce waste throughout the food processing, distribution, retail and consumer supply chains. The aim of this project is demonstrate that this can be achieved by 1-day shelf life extension through the generation of activated oxygen (ozone) inside a sealed food package. This will be validated in food processing environments to inactivate yeast, mould spores and harmful bacteria in food already packaged for sale, and can achieve this in a safe controlled repeated manner without interfering with the integrity of the food or package. The project "Shelf life extension through plasma generation of active oxygen in sealed packages" is led by Anacail Ltd, a Glasgow University spin-out micro SME, and includes a consortium of leading UK food processing companies in the bakery, fresh fish and chilled goods sectors.

Bakkavör Foods Ltd has identified a technology capable of producing a low fat fresh mayonnaise with the organoleptic and quality characteristics of a mayonnaise with a much higher fat content. The current application of this technology in the retail market is being restricted by usage limitations to use in certain product formulations. This project aims to understand the science behind this limitation and, hence, how to resolve it. Resolution would permit a significant reduction in fat consumed in chilled foods