This project seeks to improve the resilience and efficiency of the UK's Food Supply Chain (FSC) by killing microbes present on fresh produce that if left unmanaged would lead to spoilage. This increases the shelf life of produce, enabling these items to be held at distribution centres for longer - improving resilience of the FSC to sudden peaks of demand. Managing spoiling organisms can be achieved using chemicals, but this is an unpopular approach with negative implications for the environment.
This project uses 'cool' plasma to safely manage spoilage organisms without leaving a chemical residue. Creo Medical has already developed the underlying cool plasma technology, which this project proposes to re-purpose for food applications.