Source: UNIV OF MINNESOTA submitted to
DEVELOPMENT OF CONTINUOUS INTENSE PULSED LIGHT TECHNOLOGY FOR NON-THERMAL PASTEURIZATION OF POWDERED FOODS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1008613
Grant No.
2016-68003-24850
Project No.
MIN-12-G25
Proposal No.
2015-08046
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A4131
Project Start Date
Feb 1, 2016
Project End Date
Jan 31, 2023
Grant Year
2019
Project Director
Ruan, R.
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108
Performing Department
Bioproducts/Biosystems Enr
Non Technical Summary
This CAP project, integrating research with extension activities, addresses the program area "Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies" (A4131) by developing an intense pulsed light (IPL) based technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. Powdered foods are widely used as ingredients in manufacturing processed foods or consumed directly by humans and animals for their energy and nutrient contents. Inappropriate and insufficient decontamination have led to numerous outbreaks of foodborne diseases in recent years. Different physical and chemical processes have been used to decontaminate powdered foods. However, these processes have various defects, making their application ineffective and sometime impractical. IPL is an emerging technology for overcoming these defects. In this project, a continuous IPL process will be investigated for its germicidal effectiveness and also its impacts on physical, chemical, nutritional, and sensory properties of representative powdered foods. A prototype IPL system will be designed and constructed through the consultations with industry partners and stakeholders. The research activities on the system will cover the process optimization in lab and the field trials with industry partners, while the extension activities will include the workshop to demonstrate its usage to the stakeholders. Overall, we expect this technology platform will cost-effectively improve the safety of powdered foods and reduce the occurance of foodborne diseases asscoiated with the consumption of powdered food. These benefits of IPL technology could be translated into enhanced the competitiveness of US food industry, increased utilization of US agricultural products, and higher health and living standards of the consumers.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
15%
Applied
35%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
50150102020100%
Knowledge Area
501 - New and Improved Food Processing Technologies;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of the project is to develop an intense pulsed light (IPL)-based technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. The supporting objectives are: (1) to develop and construct an experimental continuous IPL apparatus; (2) to understand the contributions of variables to the performance of IPL process in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability; (3) to evaluate the effects of IPL process on nutritional values and sensory quality; (4) to optimize the process and develop a prototype system for field demonstration; (5) to introduce the technology and educate suitable industrial users about the advantages of using IPL to ensure safer dry foods through extension efforts.
Project Methods
This project will include research and extension components with a focus on developing a non-thermal pasteurization technology for powdered food industries. The consortium consists of six faculty with expertise in food engineering, microbiology, chemistry, sensory evaluation, and extension. There are many powdered foods manufacturers around the Twin Cities area, who are the primary stakeholders of the proposed project. Therefore we feel very strongly that the collaborations among investigators and between university researchers and industry partners will be effective and productive. Four activities are planned for the research and development component and one activity for extension. However, extension activity is fully integrated into the research and development activities through bidirectional communication and interactions. The first activity is intended to set up an experimental IPL apparatus to be used for the second and third research activities. The second research activity is the core of the project, which is to investigate the germicidal performance of IPL operated under different conditions. The third research activity is designed to evaluate the influence of IPL processing on key chemical and physical properties which may affect the nutritional and quality. Sensory evaluation techniques will also be employed to evaluate the acceptance of the processed products and provide information that helps minimize the adverse impacts of the process on product quality. In the fourth research activity, we will optimize the process for specific products and develop and fabricate a prototype IPL system which is capable of providing the conditions suitable for processing of a wide range of powdered food products. The sub-activities for the extension component will be planned for throughout the project. The objective of our extension activities is to not only share our findings and knowledge with the identified stakeholders and training future workforce, but also seek feedback from the stakeholders regarding the strategy to implement the technology in powdered food plants.

Progress 02/01/16 to 01/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, processors, researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided training opportunities for 10 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral researchers through research and classroom education. They also had the opportunity to present their research in conferences and workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the project, 6 papers have been published on peer-reviewed journals, more than 45 oral and poster presentations were made in technical conferences, workshops, seminars, and symposiums, scientific findings and knowledge have been incorporated into three classroom courses, 3 industry advisory committee meetings were held, and more than 12 tours were provided to visitors from food companies. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We successfully developed and constructed a continuous IPL system which was subsequently used for a wide range of experiments that followed in the next two years. This accomplishment ensured that our researchers had the necessary processing capability to treat samples under different conditions including energy level, residence time, temperature, and RH. In the later part of third year and fourth year, we redesigned the system based on our experience with the first system and experimental data, and were able to construct two versions of IPL systems. The latest system enables us to control treatment environments and one-pass process. Our team developed and compared several bacteria inoculation protocols for powdered foods. Validated methods were subsequently used for all the experiments conducted in the project. We conducted a series of experiments to evaluate the bactericidal effects of IPL treatments of numerous powdered samples under different processing conditions. Process improvement and optimization and system development led to bacterial reduction as high as 5 logs. We also conducted research to shed lights on the bactericidal mechanisms of IPL treatment using multiple techniques such as molecular biology, microscopy, high resolution NMR, chemometrics, and metabolomic analysis. Instrumental and sensory evaluation of the quality of the treated products was carried out. Physical and chemical changes were characterized and quantified. Sensory attributes were also quantified and related to instrumentally measured parameters. We interacted with the industry through annual industry advisory committee meetings, workshop in industry setting, testing samples provided by interested companies, and discussion on potential implementation of the technology in current production facilities. We showcased the technology and facility to the stakeholders through onsite tours, workshop, and conferences. Scientific findings were also published on peer reviewed journals.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2022 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Erik Anderson, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Yanling Cheng, Kirk Cobb, Laurence Lee, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. Continuous high-capacity particulate foods pasteurization process and system. Invention Disclosure.


Progress 02/01/21 to 01/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, processors, researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided following opportunities for training and professional development: Graduate research assistantships Postdoctoral research fellowships Presentations in conferences and symposiums How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our research results were disseminated to the academic community through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Some research results were used in classroom teaching to benefit students. On-site demonstrations were conducted to showcase our results to a broad range of audience including academic researchers, government officials, funding agencies, students, entrepreneurs, and the general public. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will expand our research in the use of photocatalysts in combination with IPL for mitigation of biological hazards in food materials and products.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We continue to develop and improve non-thermal pasteurization processes. In this period, we focused on the use of photocatalysts in the intense pulsed light (IPL) and microwave processes. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was adopted as the photocatalyst to assist with the IPL to maximize the bactericidal effect. Synergistic effect of IPL and TiO2 photocatalysis on microbial inactivation was observed. Out of concern over residual TiO2 particles in food products, we quantified the residual amount of the TiO2 in the IPL treated powder and found that the residual level is below FDA approved level. We also started a new project in which IPL and microwave treatments are applied to grain seeds for the purpose of controlling Fusarium head blight (FHB, scab), a disease that reduces yield and produces mycotoxins that impact human and animal health. The initial experiment data shows the IPL treatment improved the germination. Its effect on the Fusarium mold is being evaluated.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Myung-Woo Kang, Dongjie Chen, Roger Ruan, Zata M. Vickers. 2021. The effect of intense pulsed light on the sensory properties of nonfat dry milk. J. of Food Science. 86:41194133.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Wes Mosher, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Min Min, Yanling Cheng, Jun An, Yiwei Ma, Xuetong Fan, Brendan A. Niemira, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. 2021. Effects of intense pulsed light and gamma irradiation on Bacillus cereus spores in mesquite pod flour. Food Chemistry. Volume 344, 15 May 2021, 128675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128675
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Qingqing Mao, Juer Liu, Justin R. Wiertzema, Dongjie Chen, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Roger Ruan, and Chi Chen. 2021. Identification of Quinone Degradation as a Triggering Event for Intense Pulsed Light-Elicited Metabolic Changes in Escherichia coli by Metabolomic Fingerprinting. Metabolites 2021, 11, 102. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11020102
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei Zhou, Yunxia He, Xianlu Lei, Liangkun Dongjie Chen, Justin R. Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yunpu Wang, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Wes Mosher, Myungwoo Kang, Min, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Laurence Lee, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan. 2020. Catalytic intense pulse light inactivation of Cronobacter sakazakii and other pathogens in non-fat dry milk and wheat flour. Food Chemistry, Volume 332, 1 December 2020, 127420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127420
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Yanling Cheng, Nan Zhou, Paul Chen, Yunpu Wang, Kun Li, Shuhao Huo, Pengfei Cheng, Peng Peng, Renchuang Zhang, Lu Wang, Hui Liu, Yuhuan Liu, Roger Ruan. 2020. Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using TiO2-based photocatalysts: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 268, 20 September 2020, 121725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121725
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: 61. Dongjie Chen, Shuhao Huo, Pengfei Cheng, Yanling Cheng, Nan Zhou, Paul Chen, Yunpu Wang, Kun Li, Peng Peng, Roger Ruan. 2021. Treatment and nutrient recovery from acetophenone based wastewater by an integrated catalytic intense pulsed light and Tribonema sp. cultivation. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification. Volume 160, March 2021, 108276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2020.108276


Progress 02/01/20 to 01/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies Changes/Problems:Although we have fulfilled our obligation to the original objectives of theproject, Covid-19 did affect our ability to better demonstrate the technology to the industry, and we believe keeping the current team structure will enable us to continue to work together and turn our laboratory research results into practical applications in the industry. Our request for no cost extensionhas been approved by the respective program leader. The extended period will start on February 1 2021 and endJanuary 31, 2022 and will be used to further improve processes and system, explore application of the technology in broader scope thanthe original plan, and demonstrate the technology to more stakeholders especially the food manufacturing and packaging companies, which is important to speeding up the transfer of the technology to the industry. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We incorporated the knowledge and findings in Introduction to Food engineering, Food Microbiology, and Introductory Microbiology classes. Our research has received publicity from local newspaper and TV media. This research project has provided the training and research experience to following researchers: Dr. Yanling Cheng, Research associate, BBE Dr. Erik Anderson, Postdoctoral Researcher, BBE Qingqing Mao, Graduate research assistant, BBE Peng Peng , Graduate research assistant, BBE Dongjie Chen , Graduate research assistant, BBE Justin Wiertzema , Graduate research assistant, FScN Juer Liu, Graduate research assistant, BBE Charles Schiappacasse, Graduate research assistant, BBE Nan Zhou, Graduate research assistant, BBE Myungwoo Kang, Graduate research assistant, FScN Shruthi Murthy, Graduate research assistant, FScN Wes Mosher, Graduate research assistant, FScN How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research data were published on peer-reviewed journals, and communicated to food companies through face to face meetings earlier in the year and zoom meetings including industry advisory committee meeting. INTENSE PULSED LIGHT FOR POWDERED FOOD PASTEURIZATION WORKSHOP (Zoom webinar) was heled on September 11, 2020, which was attended by more sixty registered attendees from all over the world. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our request for no cost extension of the project has been approved. We will continue to improve the processes anddevelop new techniques to improve the inactivation efficiency and reduce undesirable impact on the quality and nutritional values of the IPL treated products. We will expand the portfolia of product applications.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) to develop and construct an experimental continuous IPL apparatus Completed, nothing to report. (2) to understand the contributions of variables to the performance of IPL process in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability In this period, we explored the synergetic effects between IPL and photocatalysts on bacterial inactivation to achieve additional log reduction. The optimized parameters of prototype IPL system for pathogen decontamination are the voltage of 3000 V, frequency of 1 Hz. The IPL treatment time was extended to 60 s after securing the optimized treatment conditions. Bringing the total log reduction to 3.97±0.08 (C. sakazakii), 3.00±0.04 (E. faecium), and 1.68±0.38 (B. cereus) in non-fat dry milk, and 4.15±0.07 (C. sakazakii), 3.31±0.06 (E. faecium), 1.53±0.21 (B. cereus) in wheat flour (Table 8). Further increasing the IPL treatment time did not result in higher microbial inactivation. Photocatalysts are usually activated by light in UV range, which is within IPL. Activated photocatalysts may reach places such as cracks, creases, and shadows which are out of reach of direct IPL irradiation. Our research showed an additional log reduction at lower energy consumption by catalytic IPL compared with IPL only. Spores are known to be even more resistant to UV (especially 254 nm) than their vegetative counterparts, and results showed that they were more resistant to IPL than the vegetative cells. In our research, Cronobacter sakazakii, Enterococcus faecium, and Bacillus cereus spores artificially inoculated on grain and exposed to IPL demonstrated variable effectiveness for decontamination. C. sakazakii, a Gram-negative bacterium, after 120 seconds, a 2.7 ± 0.28 log-reduction (average energy density is ~0.285 J/pulse/cm2) was observed. E faecium, which is Gram-positive, was less susceptible to IPL and with a reduction of 1.5 ± 0.04 log CFU/g viable cells. Gram-positive bacteria possess a thicker cell wall than Gram-negative cells. Finally, the spores from B. cereus showed the most resistance to IPL treatment with 0.9 log inactivation observed. These findings agree with other studies, indicating that Gram-negative bacteria are more susceptible to IPL than Gram-positive bacteria. To elucidate IPL's effect on bacterial spores, TEM and SEM images were taken pre- and post-IPL treatment. SEM showed slight damage on the spore outer coat after 120s IPL but no immediately apparent visible damage to the internal structure of the spore were detected. The damage appears to be the start of nucleoid condensation in the core of the B. cereus spore. A similar phenomenon was found in stationary-phase Escherichia coli following 20s IPL treatment. (3) to evaluate the effects of IPL process on nutritional values and sensory quality Completed, nothing to report (4) to optimize the process and develop a prototype system for field demonstration Completed. Work related to further process development is reported in Objective (2) (5) to introduce the technology and educate suitable industrial users about the advantages of using IPL to ensure safer powdered foods. Due to COVID 19, we had limited in person visits and meeting with the industry. VP for research of Ardent Mills visited us to discuss their interest in using IPL to improve flour safety. We held zoom meeting with the Industry Advisory Committee members to report our progress and listen to their advice. We also held a technical workshop to introduce fundamentals of IPL technology, showcase our work and findings, and demonstrate our IPL system (virtual tour). The workshop was attended by more than 60 people from all over the world.

Publications

  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Peng Peng, Paul Chen, Dongjie Chen, Min Addy, Yanling Cheng, Nan Zhou, Charles Schiappacasse, Yaning Zhang, Erik Anderson, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Roger Ruan. 2019. Chapter 5. Impact of Pulsed Light on Food Constituents. In Effect of Emerging Processing Methods on the Food Quality. S. Roohinejad et al. (eds.), Springer Nature Switzerland AG. ISBN 978-3-030-18190-1 ISBN 978-3-030-18191-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18191-8.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Wes Mosher, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Min Min, Yanling Cheng, Jun An, Yiwei Ma, Xuetong Fan, Brendan A. Niemira, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. 2020. Effects of intense pulsed light and gamma irradiation on Bacillus cereus spores in mesquite pod flour. Food Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128675.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin R. Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yunpu Wang, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Wes Mosher, Myungwoo Kang, Min, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Laurence Lee, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan. 2020. Catalytic intense pulse light inactivation of Cronobacter sakazakii and other pathogens in non-fat dry milk and wheat flour. Food Chemistry, Volume 332, 1 December 2020, 127420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127420
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Yanling Cheng, Nan Zhou, Paul Chen, Yunpu Wang, Kun Li, Shuhao Huo, Pengfei Cheng, Peng, Renchuang Zhang, Lu Wang, Hui Liu, Yuhuan Liu, Roger Ruan. 2020. Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using TiO2-based photocatalysts: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 268, 20 September 2020, 121725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121725
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Yanling Cheng, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yunpu Wang, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan. 2019. Effects of intense pulsed light on Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella Surrogate Enterococcus faecium inoculated in different powdered foods. Food Chemistry, Volume 296, 30 October 2019, Pages 23-28. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.05.180
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Chen, D., Peng, P., Zhou, N., Cheng, Y., Min, M., Ma, Y., Mao, Q., Chen, P., Chen, C., Ruan, R. 2019. Evaluation of Cronobacter sakazakii inactivation and physicochemical property changes of non-fat dry milk powder by cold atmospheric plasma, Food Chemistry, Volume 290, 30 August 2019, Pages 270-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.03.149
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Paul Chen, Yanling Cheng, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Yuhuan Liu, Roger Ruan. 2019. Deoxynivalenol Decontamination in Raw and Germinating Barley Treated by Plasma-Activated Water and Intense Pulsed Light. Journal Food and Bioprocess Technology, 12(2), 246-254. DOI:10.1007/s11947-018-2206-2.


Progress 02/01/19 to 01/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We incorporated the knowledge and findings in Introduction to Food engineering, Food Microbiology, and Introductory Microbiology classes. Our research has received publicity from local newspaper and TV media. This research project has provided the training and research experience to more than 10 junior researchers including graduate students, postdocs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research data were published on peer-reviewed journals, presented on technical conferences, symposiums, USDA NIFA grantee meeting, and local food industry meetings. We made many visits and communications with companies and organizations including National Dairy Research Council, Land O'Lakes, Profile Industries, Inc., Ardent Mills, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1) Explore the applicaiton of IPL technology in broader range of food matrices 2) Investigate the synergetic effects of IPL and photocatalysts

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Increasing occurrence of foodborne pathogens in dry powdered foods has become a major concern to food industries and consumers in the United States. This situation is mainly due to the fact that microorganisms in their dormant status, such as spores, can remain viable for long time in dry powdered foods, even though they do not grow in this low-water activity environment. When the environment is changes by storage and food processing, these pathogenic microorganisms can become vegetative and proliferate rapidly, causing severe outbreaks, hospitalizations, and even deaths. The most common foodborne pathogens in dry foods are strains of Salmonella spp., which are responsible for over one million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 death annually in the United States. This research aims to address this major food safety issue by applying intense pulsed light (IPL) to powdered food, and also by integrating research with extension efforts. The outcome of this project will result in a novel platform for non-thermal disinfection of powdered foods. Implementation of this platform will cost-effectively improve the safety of powdered foods, and thus enhance the competitiveness of the US food industry and increase the consumption of US agricultural products. In addition, the new technology will reduce the risk of foodborne outbreaks associated with consumption of powdered foods, which will have significant impact on the health and living standard of the consumers. Accomplishments Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability Activity 2.1 Evaluating of methods for inoculating dry power foods We investigated three inoculation methods and their effect on repeatability and desiccation tolerance. Results from the study indicate that different inoculation methodologies impact repeatability and bacterial survival. Lawn grown liquid inoculation repeatably resulted in the most stable populations out of the three methodologies. Activity 2.2 New factorial design and evaluating treatment parameters To find the ideal processing parameters for both nonfat dry milk and wheat flour, various parameters were investigated. These parameters include voltage, feed rate, frequency, pulse duration, and fluence. Best conditions were determined based on the experimental results. Activity 2.3 Investigating hurdle technologies and catalytic IPL We investigated decontamination of food using a combination of IPL, UV, microwave, and Titanium dioxide (TiO2). Synergetic effects were observed. About 5 log-reduction was obtained in preliminary study. Further study will be carried out to understand and improve the process. Activity 2.4 Microbial decontamination of grains and nuts using IPL We tested the efficacy of IPL in the surface decontamination of grains and nuts using individual and combined processes. The results show a great potential for commercial application of the technology. Additional studies are being conducted. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality of powdered foods Activity 3.1: Analysis of IPL-induced color change in wheat powder The colors of control and IPL-treated wheat flour powder were measured using a Konica Minolta CR-300 Chroma Meter. The results indicate that IPL treatment did not impact the color of wheat flour powder. Activity 3.2: Validation of LC-MS-based chemometric platform for analyzing processed wheat flour powder We conducted experiments to understand if the chemometric separation observed during the previous study of non-fat dry milk powder could be successfully translated to a different matrix. The results suggested that it was indeed possible to separate chemometric variations between the powders. Activity 3.3: Analysis of IPL treatment in wheat flour powder Each parameter in the design of the IPL treatment was explored during PCA modeling. Voltage showed the most noticeable separation between factors in the design. Further investigation is needed into the nature of these changes before conclusions can be drawn. Activity 3.4: Analysis of IPL treatment versus γ-irradiated mesquite flour powder We used untargeted chemometric analysis to compare the effects of IPL and ??-irradiation on mesquite flour. Differences in changes in certain compounds were found. The impact of these changes on the nutritional value and sensory properties will require further investigation. Activity 3.5: Shelf life stability experiment In order to investigate the potential shelf-life preserving effects of intense-pulsed light, a current study using wheat flour powder is underway. Wheat flour powder will be sampled at various timepoints and stored at -80°C for analysis after the completion of the six month time frame. Activity 3.6. Sensory evaluation of IPL treated food products We investigated how the feed rate through the IPL chamber (4200 and 8100 g/h), input voltage (2200 and 3000 V), and pulse frequency (1, 3, and 14 Hz) influenced the sensory properties of refined wheat flour compared with a UV-treated sample and an unprocessed control sample. Flour samples were evaluated both dry and in a white sauce. The aroma, taste, flavor, and texture of these samples were rated using a lexicon and sensory test protocols developed by trained descriptive analysis panelists. Panelists compared the appearance of flours treated with IPL and UV to the unprocessed flour by using a two-out-of-five difference test. Among examined processing parameters of IPL treatments, feed rate had the greatest impact on the sensory qualities of wheat flour by increasing the perceived intensity of mushroom aroma, saltiness, overall flavor, chalky flavor, cardboard flavor, and medicine flavor. The UV treatment elicited greater changes in sensory properties than all IPL treatments. The IPL-treated flour differed from the control in only one aroma attribute, whereas the UV-treated flour differed from the control in sixteen attributes. Neither IPL nor UV affected the appearance of the flour. The IPL treatments had minimal impact on the sensory properties of wheat flour. Based on the findings, we expect that using IPL to process wheat flour can meet consumers' demands for safe wheat flour with minimal changes in sensory properties. Activity 4: Optimize the process and develop a prototype system for demonstration of feasibility in collaboration with industry partners Activity 4.1. Development of photo-catalytic IPL process A photocatalysts Titanium Oxide was incorporated into our IPL process. It was found the use of the catalyst shortened the processing time required to obtain a given microbial reduction target. Activity 4.2. Modification of process for different food materials Grains, nuts, and seeds were provided by interested commercial entities for testing of the potential of our IPL technology. In order to effectively treat these materials, we modified our process to suit the physical characteristics of the materials. Activity 5: Extension Activity 5.1. Outreach to the industry We visited and communicated with many companies who are interested in our technology. Some of these companied provided samples for testing and received feedback from us. Activity 5.2. Enriching curricula and providing training for young researchers We continued to incorporate knowledge and findings from the project into classroom teaching. This research project has provided training and research experience to postdocs and graduate students. Activity 5.3. Meeting with Industry Advisory Committee members We held the third Industry Advisory Committee meeting in June 11, 2019 at the University of Minnesota. During the meeting, a wide range of topics, including system development, practical application considerations, potential of other applications of the technology, partnerships, etc., were discussed. Many suggestions were incorporated in our research.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Yanling Cheng, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yunpu Wang, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan, 2019. Effects of intense pulsed light on Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella surrogate Enterococcus faecium inoculated in different powdered foods, Food Chemistry, 296:23-28.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Nan Zhou, Yanling Cheng, Min Min, Yiwei Ma, Qingqing Mao, Paul Chen, Chi Chen, Roger Ruan. 2019. Evaluation of Cronobacter sakazakii inactivation and physicochemical property changes of non-fat dry milk powder by cold atmospheric plasma, Food Chemistry, 290:270-276.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Justin Wiertzema , Christian Borchardt , Anna Beckstrom , Kamal Dev , Paul Chen , Chi Chen , Zata Vickers , Joellen Feirtag , Laurence Lee , Roger Ruan. 2019. Evaluation of Methods for Inoculating Dry Powder Foods with Salmonella enterica, Enterococcus faecium or Cronobacter sakazakii. Journal of Food Protection. 82(6):10821088.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kang, M., Paul Chen, David Baumler, Chi Chen, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan, and Vickers, Z. Sensory Analysis of Powdered Milk with IPL Treatment. Presented at USDA Natick Annual Grantees meeting August 14, 2018
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kang, M., Paul Chen, David Baumler, Chi Chen, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan, and Vickers, Z. Sensory analysis of wheat flour pasteurized with intense pulsed light. Presented at the USDA NIFA AFRI CAP PD?co-PD meeting for A4131  Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing technologies. Louisville KY July 20, 2019.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kang, M., Paul Chen, David Baumler, Chi Chen, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan, and Vickers, Z. Sensory Analysis of Powdered Milk with IPL Treatment. Presented at The Pangborn Symposium, Edinburgh, Scotland July 26-30 2019
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Qingqing Mao, Wes Mosher, Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yanling Cheng, Justin Wiertzema, Yiwei Ma, Paul Chen, David Baumler, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, Roger Ruan, Chi Chen, Identification of intense pulsed light-elicited changes in powdered foods and bacteria through LC-MS based chemometric analysis, Poster presentation, IAFP meeting, Louisville, KY, July 21-24, 2019
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wes Mosher, Monitoring irradiation-induced protein degradation in non-fat dry milk via LC-MS based chemometric analysis, Poster presentation, UMN Plant Protein Innovation Center Research Spotlight meeting, Minneapolis, MN, October 17, 2019
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yiwei Ma, Juer Liu, Yunpu Wang, Yingdan Zhu, Paul Chen, Chi Chen, Dong Li, and Roger Ruan. Effects of Cold Atmospheric Plasma on Cronobacter Sakazakii Inoculated in Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder. The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). 2019 June 2-5, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yanling Cheng, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, and Roger Ruan. Effect of Continuous Intense Pulsed Light on Microorganisms Inoculated in Different Powder Samples. The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). 2019 June 2-5, New Orleans, Louisiana. (Notes: the poster presentation was obtained the student division competition winner with $500 reward).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Wes Mosher, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Min Min, Yanling Cheng, Xuetong Fan, Brendan Niemira, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. Effects of intense pulsed light and gamma irradiation on Bacillus cereus spore in mesquite flour. National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). 2019 September 9-12, Tucson, Arizona.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Wes Mosher, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yunpu Wang, Min Min, Laurence Lee, David J. Baumlerb, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. Development and evaluation of a continuous intense pulsed light system for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). 2019 September 9-12, Tucson, Arizona.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Wes Mosher, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Min Min, Yanling Cheng, Xuetong Fan, Brendan Niemira, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Paul Chen, and Roger Ruan. Effects of intense pulsed light and gamma irradiation on Bacillus cereus spore in mesquite flour. BBE Graduate Student Research Showcase. 2019 Oct 23, Saint Paul, MN.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Chen, D., Wiertzema, J., Peng, P., Cheng, & Y., Wang, Y., et al. Catalytic intensive pulse light inactivation of Cronobacter sakazakiia and other pathogens in non-fat dry milk and wheat flour. Food Chemistry.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Chen, D., Mosher, W., Wiertzema, J., Peng, P., & Min, M., et al. Effects of the intense pulsed light and gamma radiation on Bacillus cereus spores in mesquite pod flour. Food Chemistry.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Chen, D., Cheng, P., Huo, S., Li, K., & Zhang, R., et al. Removal of swine manure by an integrated process of catalytic intense pulsed light and algal treatment. Journal of Cleaner Production.


Progress 02/01/18 to 01/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, students and researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We incorporated the knowledge and findings in Introduction to Food engineering, Food Microbiology, and Introductory Microbiology classes. Our research has received publicity from local newspaper and TV media. This research project has provided the key training and research experience to following researchers: Dr. Yanling Cheng, Research associate, BBE Dr. Min Addy, Research associate, BBE Dr. Erik Anderson, Postdoctoral Researcher, BBE Qingqing Mao, Graduate research assistant, BBE Peng Peng, Graduate research assistant, BBE Dongjie Chen, Graduate research assistant, BBE Justin Wiertzema, Graduate research assistant, FScN Juer Liu, Graduate research assistant, FScN Yiwei Ma,Graduate research assistant, FScN Jieyao Yuan,Graduate research assistant, FScN Yuyin Zhou,Graduate research assistant, FScN Shiyu Liu, Graduate research assistant, BBE Charles Schiappacasse, Graduate research assistant, BBE Nan Zhou, Graduate research assistant, BBE Myungwoo Kang, Graduate research assistant, FScN Shruthi Murthy, Graduate research assistant, FScN Wes Mosher, Graduate research assistant, FScN How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research data were published on peer-reviewed journals, presented on technical conferences, symposiums, USDA NIFA grantee meeting, and local food industry meetings. We made many visits and communications with companies and organizations including National Dairy Research Council, Land O'Lakes, Profile Industries, Inc., Ardent Mills, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability In the coming year, our objectives will be: (1) to carry out experiments to verify the prototype system and processes; (2) to continue to test the effectiveness of IPL treatment on a broader range of bacteria strains and powdered food samples; (3) to conduct shelf life studies of IPL treated samples. The findings are expected to confirm the new processing conditions rendered by the new prototype system are adequate for different bacteria strains and powdered food matrices. The shelf life study will provide samples for Activity 3 work and ultimate assessment of stability of IPL treated food products. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality This part of work is intended to determine what adverse effects IPL treatments may cause and provide feedback to process improvement and optimization. In the coming year, we will conduct systematic analysis of the chemical, physical, and sensory properties of a wide range of powdered food products treated with IPL. These same analyses will be conducted on samples from the shelf life experiments. Additional samples from other treatments such as continuous UV and/or irradiation will be obtained for comparison purpose. Activity 4: Optimize the process and develop a prototype system for demonstration of feasibility in collaboration with industry partners In the coming year, we will focus on process verification, optimization, and field demonstration. Some improvements to the system may be necessary. We will include more food products for the test. Particularly we will focus on unbleached wheat flour, which has been associated with recent foodborne pathogen outbreaks. We will identify a local powdered-food company and work closely with this company for field tests of the system. Activity 5: Extension We will offer workshops to potential users of our technology. We have planned two technical symposiums intended for the industry and academic audiences at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual meeting and at the International Association for Food Protection ( IAPF) conference in 2019. Our newly launched project website will be updated with new findings. The annual industrial advisory meeting will be held between March and May 2019. The next steps with respect to implementing IPL Technology into the powdered food industry are to gather information on the different types of processes used in the industry. We have prepared a survey that will be sent out to food plants to collect these data so that we can work on the hurdles and issues that may be faced when transferring the technology to the facilities. There will be a workshop conducted in September that will cover the food safety controls in the powdered food industry, as well as introducing the IPL technology and results from this research to potential facilities. We are in the process of identifying companies that would be willing to do trials with the IPL equipment in their facility so we can validate and collect field data to compare with the laboratory data.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact Statement Increasing occurrence of foodborne pathogens in dry powdered foods has become a major concern to food industries and consumers in the United States. This situation is mainly due to the fact that microorganisms in their dormant status, such as spores, can remain viable for long time in dry powdered foods, even though they do not grow in this low-water activity environment. When the environment is changes by storage and food processing, these pathogenic microorganisms can become vegetative and proliferate rapidly, causing severe outbreaks, hospitalizations, and even deaths. The most common foodborne pathogens in dry foods are strains of Salmonella spp., which are responsible for over one million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 death annually in the United States. This research aims to address this major food safety issue by applying intense pulsed light (IPL) to powdered food, and also by integrating research with extension efforts. The outcome of this project will result in a novel platform for non-thermal disinfection of powdered foods. Implementation of this platform will cost-effectively improve the safety of powdered foods, and thus enhance the competitiveness of the US food industry and increase the consumption of US agricultural products. In addition, the new technology will reduce the risk of foodborne outbreaks associated with consumption of powdered foods, which will have significant impact on the health and living standard of the consumers. Accomplishments Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability Activity 2.1. IPL treatment on inoculated food products We continued to investigate the bactericidal effects of IPL on Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella surrogate Enterococcus faecium inoculated onto different powdered foods (nonfat dry milk, wheat flour, whole egg powder, egg white powder, and ground black pepper). Inoculated powders were exposed to multiple IPL passes. The results indicate that with our first-generation IPL machine we can achieve up to a 5-log reduction of C. sakazakii and up to a 3.6-log reduction of E. faecium on various food matrices. Activity 2.2. DNA damage in E. coli caused by IPL treatment To start to understand the damage caused by IPL exposure on bacterial cells, random amplification of polymorphic DNA and transmission electron microscopy were employed. DNA damage was visualized in the RAPD-PCR gel images in which bands are missing starting at 5 s IPL exposure. Transmission electron microscopy shows exposure of bacteria to diverse sources of detrimental conditions resulted in massive genome. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality of powdered foods Activity 3.1. Effects of IPL treatment on chemical properties Targeted LC-MS analysis showed that tryptophan, methionine, and arginine were degraded during acid hydrolysis and hence were not quantified. The other amino acids profile remained unchanged after IPL treatment. Untargeted chemometric analysis indicated that the IPL treatment altered the NFDM chemical profile in a dose-dependent pattern. Riboflavin and pantothenic acid were identified as the micronutrients prone to IPL-induced degradation. In addition, multiple peptides were identified as IPL-responsive markers since they were only found in IPL-treated NFDM. Activity 3.2. Effects of IPL treatment of physical properties Comparing to control NFDM, all IPL-treated samples experiences significant color shift in L*, a*, and b* values. Additional sensory evaluation will be able to determine the significance of observed color changes. Activity 3.3. Comparing IPL with other disinfection technologies The effects of IPL on NFDM was compared with continuous UV (254 nm) and plasma treatments. The continuous UV reached 2 log microbial reduction and plasma treatment reached 3 log reduction. The IPL was tuned to reach corresponding 1, 2, and 3 log reduction. Among the treatments, continuous UV treatment had the greatest influence on the chemical profile of NFDM based on the degradation of riboflavin and pantothenic acid and the formation of peptides. The IPL treatment had greater bactericidal activity than continuous UV, but less influences on the chemical composition of NFDM. Activity 3.4. Mechanistic investigation of IPL-elicited bactericidal activity In the experiments, E. coli suspension was exposed to direct IPL treatment for durations of 5, 10, 15 and 20s, and the viability of the bacteria was evaluated. The metabolic events associated with IPL-elicited bactericidal activity were investigated by both NMR and LC-MS analysis. A close correlation between NMR peak ratio and IPL treatment time and log reduction was observed. More specifically, intracellular valine decreased drastically after treatment. The LC-MS analysis showed that IPL treatment elicited progressive changes in the E. coli metabolome, including nucleotides, antioxidants, and amino acids. Activity 3.5. Sensory evaluation of IPL treated food products The purpose of our first study was to determine how different IPL processing conditions affected sensory attributes of pasteurized milk powder. A trained panel found that the number of passes had a greater impact on the sensory qualities of pasteurized milk than did temperature. As the number of passes increased, the pasteurized milk increased in umami taste, overall flavor, smoky flavor, and burnt flavor. Samples treated with a higher temperature had more metallic aroma. The most minimal IPL processing made a large difference in sensory quality from the control sample. Based on the findings, we recommend that the process be improved to reduce photo-thermal effects. Activity 4: Optimize the process and develop a prototype system for demonstration of feasibility in collaboration with industry partners Activity 4.1. Process characterization and optimization and lab system modification The energy distribution on the vibrator bed along the length and width was characterized. Temperature and humidity controls were implemented to test one-pass process. The test results show that it is feasible to increase the one-pass residence time without causing the temperature to rise above 60C and achieve 5-log reduction. We also collected data on inactivation as a function of distance between the light source, feeder bed, and light source wavelength. Activity 4.2. Prototype system development and fabrication The findings and experience described above were used to develop the new pilot scale demonstration system. The prototype system has been built and is being tested and verified. The data obtained so far show the new system enables 1-pass process that kills 3-5-log bacteria under 60C in a shorter time than the multiple passes process with the original system. Activity 5: Extension Activity 5.1. Outreach to the industry In this period, we made many visits and communications with companies and organizations including National Dairy Research Council, Land O'Lakes, Profile Industries, Inc., Ardent Mills, etc. Activity 5.2. Enriching curricula and providing training for young researchers The technical concepts and some results from the project were incorporated into the Introduction to Food engineering, Food Microbiology, and Introductory Microbiology classes. Our research has received publicity from local newspaper and TV media. This research project has provided training and research experience to postdocs and graduate students. Activity 5.3. Meeting with Industry Advisory Committee members We held the second Industry Advisory Committee meeting in May 3, 2018 at the University of Minnesota. During the meeting, a wide range of topics, including system development, practical application considerations, potential of other applications of the technology, partnerships, etc., were discussed. Many suggestions were incorporated in our research.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Juer Liu, Qingqing Mao, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, and Roger Ruan. 2018. Effect of Continuous Intense Pulsed Light on Cronobacter sakazakii Inoculated in Different Powder Samples. The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). July 811, 2018. Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Juer Liu, Qingqing Mao, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, and Roger Ruan. 2018. Effect of Continuous Intense Pulsed Light on Cronobacter sakazakii Inoculated in Different Powder Samples. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). August 14-15, 2018. Natick, MA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Juer Liu, Qingqing Mao, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, and Roger Ruan. 2018. Effects of intense pulsed light on Cronobacter sakazakii inoculated in non-fat dry milk. Journal of Food Engineering, 238, 178187.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wiertzema, J.R., Borchardt, C., Beckstrom, A.K., Dev, K., Chen, P., Chen, C., Vickers, Z., Feirtag, J., Lee, L., Ruan, R., Baumler, D.J. Evaluation of Methods for Inoculating Dry Powder Food Ingredients with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, Enterococcus faecium or Cronobacter sakazakii. Revision submitted to the Journal of Food Protection.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Qingqing Mao. Characterizing intense pulsed light-elicited effects on Escherichia coli and non-fat dry milk through metabolomic and chemometric analysis
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Roger Ruan. 2018. Development of continuous intense pulsed light technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. USDA NIFA Food Processing & Manufacturing Technology Project Directors Meeting. Natick, MA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Roger Ruan. 2018. CAP [2015 - 08046]: Development of a continuous intense pulsed light technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. USDA Mid Year CAP Project Review Video Conference. St. Paul, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Juer Liu, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yiwei Ma, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan. 2018. Plasma-activated Water and Intense Pulsed Light Processing for Decontamination of Deoxynivalenol in Raw and Germinating Barley. The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). July 811, 2018. Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Justin Wiertzema and David J. Baumler, New Technologies for Powder Treatment after Drying, Invited speaker for the North Central Cheese Industry Association Meeting in Sioux Falls, SD on October 10th, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: David J. Baumler, Advances in Intense Pulsed Light Technologies for Non-Thermal Pasteurization of Powdered Foods, Invited speaker at the USDA PI/Co-PI CAP annual update meeting in Natick, MA on August 15th, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: David J. Baumler, Dairy Research Update in the Baumler Lab: From Microbiomes in Milk to New Technologies to Make Dry Powdered Foods Safer, Invited speaker at the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center annual meeting in Saint Paul, MN on July 31st, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: David J. Baumler, The Future of Food Safety, Invited plenary speaker for the Minnesota Environmental Health Association Spring Conference in Ruttgers Bay, MN on May 10th, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: David J. Baumler, Advances in Intense Pulsed Light Technologies for Non-Thermal Pasteurization of Powdered Foods, Invited speaker for the Dairy Ingredients Symposium, Shell Beach, California on Feb 27th, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Kang, M., Paul Chen, David Baumler, Chi Chen, Joellen Feirtag, Roger Ruan, and Vickers, Z. Sensory Analysis of Powdered Milk with IPL Treatment. Presented at USDA Natick Annual Grantees meeting August 14, 2018
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Juer Liu, Qingqing Mao, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, and Roger Ruan. 2018. Effect of Continuous Intense Pulsed Light on Cronobacter sakazakii Inoculated in Different Powder Samples. Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE 2018). September 9-12, 2018. Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Juer Liu, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Yiwei Ma, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan. 2018. Decontamination of Deoxynivalenol in Raw and Germinating Barley. FScN Graduate Student Research Showcase. May 15, 2018. Saint Paul, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Justin Wiertzema, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Juer Liu, Qingqing Mao, Yiwei Ma, Erik Anderson, Paul Chen, David J. Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, and Roger Ruan. 2018. Effect of Continuous Intense Pulsed Light on Cronobacter sakazakii Inoculated in Different Powder Samples. Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Showcase. October 25, 2018. Saint Paul, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Juer Liu, Dongjie Chen, Qingqing Mao, Justin Wiertzema, Yanling Cheng, Paul Chen, Chi Chen, David Baumler, Roger Ruan. 2018. Investigation of Escherichia Coli Induced by Intense Pulsed Light: A Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study. Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE 2018). September 9-12, 2018, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Juer Liu, Dongjie Chen, Qingqing Mao, Justin Wiertzema, Yanling Cheng, Paul Chen, Chi Chen, David Baumler, Roger Ruan. 2018. Investigation of Escherichia Coli Induced by Intense Pulsed Light: A Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study. FScN Graduate Student Research Showcase. May 15, 2018. Saint Paul, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Juer Liu, Dongjie Chen, Qingqing Mao, Justin Wiertzema, Yanling Cheng, Paul Chen, Chi Chen, David Baumler, Roger Ruan. 2018. Investigation of Escherichia Coli Induced by Intense Pulsed Light: A Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study. Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Showcase. October 25, 2018. Saint Paul, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Justin R. Wiertzema*, Dongjie Chen, Anna Beckstrom, Peng Peng, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan, Joellen Feirtag, and David J. Baumler, Utilization of intense pulsed light for microbial decontamination of low-moisture foods at the Conference of Food Engineering in Minneapolis, MN on Sept 10-11th, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ashley Briones*, Nina Le*, Roger Ruan, and David J. Baumler, Spores in Milk Powders: Spore elimination using Intense Pulsed Light, at the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center annual meeting in Roseville, MN on July 30st, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Justin R. Wiertzema*, Dongjie Chen, Anna Beckstrom, Peng Peng, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan, Joellen Feirtag, and David J. Baumler, Utilization of intense pulsed light for microbial decontamination of low-moisture foods, at the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center annual meeting in Roseville, MN on July 30st, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Justin R. Wiertzema*, Christian Borchardt*, and David J. Baumler, Evaluation of Methods for Inoculating Powdered Milk and Soy Flour with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, Enterococcus faecium, and Cronobacter sakazakii, Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center Annual meeting in Saint Paul, MN on July 31st , 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Qingqing Mao, Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan , Chi Chen. LC-MS based chemometric platform monitors intense pulsed light elicited effect on the chemical composition of non-fat dry milk. 14th Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE 18) September 9-12, 2018. Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Qingqing Mao, Wes Mosher, Dongjie Chen, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yanling Cheng, Justin Wiertzema, Yiwei Ma, Paul Chen, David Baumler, ZataVickers, Joellen Feirtag, Laurence Lee, Roger Ruan, Chi Chen. Characterizing intense pulsed light elicited effects on Escherichia coli and non-fat dry milk via LC-MS based metabolomic and chemometric analysis. USDA/NIFA AFRI 2018 Food Technology Grantees Annual Conference. August 14  15, 2018. Natick, MA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Dongjie Chen, Paul Chen, Yanling Cheng, Peng Peng, Juer Liu, Yiwei Ma, Yuhuan Liu, Roger Ruan. 2018. Deoxynivalenol Decontamination in Raw and Germinating Barley Treated by Plasma-Activated Water and Intense Pulsed Light. Food and Bioprocess Technology. Accepted.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Intense Pulsed Light For Food Safety at http://iplforfoodsafety.cfans.umn.edu


Progress 02/01/17 to 01/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, producers, researchers from higher education institutes and corporations, government regulation agencies Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Weincorporated the knowledge and findings in Introduction to Food engineering, Food Microbiology, and Introductory Microbiology classes (See more details in Products section). Our research has received publicity from local newspaper and TV media. This research project has provided the training and research experience to Ms. Qingqing Mao, a graduate student in the MS nutrition program, Ms. Juer Liu, a graduate student in the MS food science program, Mr. Dongjie Chen, a graduate student in the PhD food science program, Mr. Peng Peng, a graduate student in the PhD Biosystems Engineering program, and Justin Wiertzema, a graduate student in the PhD food science program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In this period, we made many visits and communication with companies and organizations including National Dairy Research Council, Land O'Lake, General mills, Profile Industries, Inc., etc. We also gave tours and made presentations in related association meetings. For example, on May 9th, 2017 Dr. Baumler gave a presentation "CAP [2015 - 08046] Development of a continuous intense pulsed light technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods" at the Annual Midwest Dairy Association/National Dairy Council (DMI) planning meeting in Ames, IA; David Baumler hosted Dr. Timothy Stubbs from the National Dairy Council to discuss the Intense Pulsed Light technology and the interests from the dairy farmers, industry, and agencies to expand this project to evaluate thermophilic spore formers in dry milk powders, and gave him a tour of the IPL system on July 19th, 2017; David J. Baumler gave a presentation "Evaluation of intense pulsed light technologies for non-thermal processing to kill spore forming spoilage organisms in non-fat dry milk powder", at the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center Annual Meeting in Saint Paul, MN on August 1, 2017. We held the first Industry Advisory Committee meeting in March 9, 2017 at the University of Minnesota. Our entire project team and following committee members attended the meeting: Tom Yang, Ph.D., Senior Food Technologist, Food Engineering & Analysis Team, Combat Feeding Directorate, US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center Judy Fraser-Heaps, Ph.D., Sr. Manager, QA, Microbiology & Product Safety, Land O'Lakes Gordon Kivi, President, KTCS, Inc. Todd Jensen, Sr. R&D Manager, Technology Pillar - One Global Baking, General Mills Cheryl Bell, Business Development Manager, Midwest Dairy Association John Snyder, President, Minnesga Inc. Laurence Lee, Ph.D., President, LZL Engineering LLC During the meeting, a wide range of topics, including system development, practical application considerations, potential of other applications of the technology, partnerships, etc., were discussed. Meeting minutes were shared with the advisory committee members and USDA program director. Feedbacks were received and responded, and suggestions were incorporated in our research. More than 20 oral and poster presentations were made in conferences and events at national, state, and university levels. Details are provided in the Products section. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability The past two years' work has resulted in a working lab scale IPL treatment system, with which we were able to test the effectiveness of IPL treatment on selected bacteria on non-fat milk powder under various conditions. In the coming year, our objectives will be: (1) we will carry out experiments to test the effectiveness of IPL treatment on a broader scope of bacteria strains and powdered food samples; (2) we will develop a process to allow us to achieve required log reduction in a single continuous treatment as opposed to multiple passes treatment; (3) we will conduct storage experiments to evaluate the shelf life of IPL treated samples; and (4) we will conduct research on the mechanisms involved in IPL inactivation of bacteria. The findings are expected to provide information important to the understanding of how effective IPL treatment is for different bacteria strains and powdered food matrices and help optimize processing conditions for different combinations of bacteria strains and food matrices. The successful development of the single continuous process will lay the foundation for the design and fabrication of the proposed prototype IPL treatment system. The shelf life study will provide samples for Activity 3 work and ultimate assessment of stability of IPL treated food products. Finally, the mechanistic study will help understand how IPL works and may provide information that help improve the process. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality IPL treatments, if set inappropriately, could lead to the overheating of food matrices mainly through the infrared waves of the light pulse and heat transfer from the hot lamp. The negative impacts of overheating including the loss of nutrients and sensory quality, can limit the application of IPL. In the past two years, we focused our work on chemical and physical properties of IPL treated foods. From this work we have developed methodologies and generated preliminary data. In the coming year, we will conduct systematic analysis of the chemical and physical properties of IPL treated samples. Sensory evaluation will start in Year 3. Experiments will be carried out to evaluate the impacts of various IPL treatment conditions on the chemical, nutritional, and physical properties and sensory quality of food products. Samples will be packed in air tight and light blocking aluminum foil pouches. We will continue to monitor these parameters during 12-month storage as part of the shelf life study discussed above. This information will help optimize the processes. Activity 4: Optimize the process and develop a prototype system for demonstration of feasibility in collaboration with industry partners The lab scale IPL treatment system has allowed us to gain first hand experimental data and experience in design and fabrication of IPL systems. In the coming year, we will begin the development of the proposed prototype IPL facility for further process verifications and field demonstration. The facility will be designed in such a way that data acquisition is convenient and it can be moved to a local powdered food manufacturer for field testing and demonstration. We will first optimize the processes for different foods. Aspen Plus will be used to model the data obtained from the above activities. Once the models are established, different process scenarios will be assessed and the optimized processes will be determined and provide ranges of engineering parameters for scale-up and prototype design. With engineering parameters determined and powder dispersion method selected based on the previous findings, the prototype system will be designed and fabricated with the following factors kept in mind: (1) light source with optimal power specifications and arrangement, (2) CIP integrated, (3) treated product outlet with maximum portability for easy implementation in final packaging station on existing production lines, and (4) compact mobile system suitable for field trials and demonstration. Activity 5: Extension In the past two years, we interacted with stakeholders in a number of ways on a continuous basis. Starting from next year, in addition to those interactions, we will offer workshop to potential users of our technology. Industry partners will be involved in the design of experiments, especially the development of the prototype facility. We expect to have our findings from the past two years and coming year published. At the same time, we plan to disseminate our findings through professional interactions, conference presentations, online posting in our websites, industrial advisory meeting. We will develop fact sheets, extension circulars, posters, and bulletins to introduce the technology, update development progress, and promote awareness of the new technology. The literature will be delivered in meetings, online, and other media.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact Statement Detection of foodborne pathogens in dry and powdered foods has been increasing in the United States, and is currently of major concern to the food industries and consumers. Typically microorganisms cannot grow in environments of very little water concentration such as dry powdered foods, but they may remain viable for long durations of time, and if present in high enough numbers, may cause severe foodborne outbreaks leading to hospitalizations and deaths. The main foodborne pathogen responsible for foodborne outbreaks in dry foods are strains of Salmonella spp., which every year causes over one million illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths. Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days and while many sickened individuals recover, in some cases the diarrhea is so severe the patient requires prolonged hospitalization. The proposed project integrates research with extension efforts. The outcome of the proposed project will result in a novel technology for non-thermal disinfection of powdered foods. Implementation of this technology will cost-effectively improve the safety of powdered foods, and thus enhance the US food industry's competitiveness, which will in turn increase the utilization of US agricultural products. In addition, the new technology will reduce foodborne outbreaks associated with consumption of powdered foods, which will have significant impact on the health and living standards of the consumers. Accomplishments Activity 1: Develop and construct experimental continuous IPL apparatuses Tasks in this activity have been completed in Year 1. Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability Activity 2.1. Inoculation protocol updated The inoculation protocol since last project update has been expanded to include all-purpose flour and Bacillus cereus spores. Activity 2.2. Antimicrobial testing To rule out the possibility that native antimicrobial activities are attributing to the microbial reduction in powdered milk following intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment, a resazurin assay was run following the protocol by Sarker et al (2007) with one minor change. Resazurin in this test was checked against Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain LT2 (ATCC 700720), Cronobacter sakazakii (ATCC 57329), and Bacillus cereus (ATCC 14579). Based on the resazurin results for each powder, there seems to be no native antimicrobial compounds present in NFDM, soy flour, or all-purpose flour. Activity 2.3. IPL treatment lethality of microorganisms on filter paper Before testing IPL on inoculated powder, to test if the IPL system can obtain 5-log reduction, bacteria were placed on filter paper and subjected to 10 second intervals of IPL. 1 mL of 24-hour bacterial culture was filtered through a 0.22 μm filter and allowed to air dry overnight in a biosafety cabinet. Each filter paper was placed in a sterile petri plate to prevent contamination and to limit exposure to contamination before and after treatment. After 30s IPL treatment, a 6-8 log reduction occurred for C. sakazakii, E. faecium and B. cereus spores. Activity 2.4. IPL treatment on inoculated NFDM and all-purpose flour Preliminary results after a few months of troubleshooting and machine calibration on NFDM were obtained. After four passes through the machine, with each pass being 25 seconds, a 5-log reduction has been obtained with Cronobacter sakazakii. Activity 2.5. IPL treatment on inoculated NFDM Preliminary data for inactivation of Cronobacter sakazakii in NFDM at different water activity levels and different initial starting temperatures of the inoculated powder were obtained. The results show that starting temperature, residence time and water activity all play a role in log reduction. Activity 2.6. Changes in particle properties and their relations to bacteria inactivation under different IPL treatment conditions Changes in particle size and density The results obtained show that the particle diameter and density of the IPL treated samples varied with water activity level, initial temperature, and residence time to different degrees. The mean particle diameter generally increased with increasing of water activity, residence time, and initial temperature but quite differently among different conditions. Inactivation of C. sakazakii inoculated on non-fat milk powder under different IPL treatment conditions The log reductions were lower when the water activity was higher (0.3 and 0.35), which may be attributed to particle agglomeration indicated by larger particle size and higher density. Such agglomeration might have provided protection for the inoculated bacteria against IPL treatment. The highest log reduction was observed for samples in water activity of 0.25. For the implementation of IPL in the processing of non-fat milk powder, a balance is required among a treatment with sufficient residence time/fluence, proper initial water activity, and initial temperature to eliminate pathogens within the food, yet mild enough to ensure adverse quality effects of milk powder are not encountered. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality Activity 3.1: Analysis of IPL-induced color change in non-fat milk powder The colors of control and IPL-treated non-fat milk powder samples were measured by a Konica Minolta CR-300 Chroma Meter. The colors are recorded as L, a, b values, respectively. The difference between the color of control samples and the color of IPL samples was presented as ΔE value (ΔE>1 is generally considered as significant color change). It was found that IPL-induced color change in non-fat milk powder was positively correlated with the exposure time of IPL treatment. Activity 3.2: Chemometric analysis of IPL-induced compositional changes in non-fat milk powder A chemometrics platform that combines liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis and multivariate analysis is adopted to monitor the chemical profile of powder food. The platform is capable of detecting subtle changes in complex chemical matrix. Using this platform, we examined whether the IPL process could significantly alter the chemical composition of powder food using the non-fat milk powder from new IPL pilot system. The distribution of control and IPL-treated samples in the PCA model of hydrolyzed milk powder and milk powder extracts indicated that there were time-dependent changes in the chemical compositions of milk powder. Activity 3.3: Influence of IPL on proteins in non-fat milk powder The protein contents in control and IPL-treated non-fat milk powders were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gels. Overall, the results of protein and amino acid analysis indicated that IPL did not significantly affect the amino acid and protein compositions of non-fat milk powder. Activity 3.4: Metabolomic investigation of IPL-elicited cytotoxicity on Escherichia coli HB101 K-12 To investigate the germicidal activity of IPL treatment on bacteria, E. coli HB101 K-12 was treated with IPL, and then examined by LC-MS based metabolomic analysis. The metabolites of harvested E.coli cells were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction method. As shown in the PCA model, the control E. coli samples are clearly separated from the IPL-treated samples, suggesting that IPL induced dramatic metabolic changes in E. coli. The nature of IPL-induced metabolic changes in E.coli is currently under investigation. Activity 4: Optimize the process and develop a prototype system for demonstration of feasibility in collaboration with industry partners No activities planned for this period. Activity 5: Extension See below.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Nan Zhou. 2017. Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma Inactivation of Pathogens in Milk Powders. Annual UMN BBE research showcase
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Peng Peng. 2017. Using Non-thermal Plasma (NTP) to Disinfect Milk Powders. Annual UMN BBE research showcase.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Juer Liu. Effects of Intense Pulsed Light Treatments on Particle and Flow Properties of Non-fat Milk Powder. Annual UMN BBE research showcase.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Dongjie Chen. 2017. Effect of Intense Pulsed Light on Cronobacter Sakazakii Inoculated on Non-fat Milk Powder. Annual UMN BBE research showcase
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: David Baumler. 2017. Modern Approaches to Make Foods Safer at the Midwest AOAC meeting held in Minneapolis, MN on May 24-25th 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Justin Wiertzema. 2017. Non-thermal Pasteurization of Powdered Foods Using Intense Pulsed Light. Midwest AOAC meeting and Minnesota Food Protection Association (MFPA), Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: David Baumler. 2017. Modern Approaches to Make Foods Safer. Twin Cities Home and Community association on October 4th, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Peng Peng. 2017. System development of the continuous intense pulsed light technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. USDA annual meeting/IAFP 2017 in Tampa, FL on July 8th and 12th.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Peng Peng. 2017. Effect of intense pulsed light on Cronobacter Sakazakii inoculated on non-fat milk powder USDA annual meeting/IAFP 2017 in Tampa, FL on July 8th and 12th
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Justin Wiertzema. 2017. Inoculation protocol developed for inoculating powders to be tested with intense pulsed light. UMN Department of Food Science and Nutrition graduate student showcase, April 18, 2017 at the St. Paul campus at the University of Minnesota.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Justin Wiertzema. 2017. Evaluation of Inoculation Methods for Inoculating Powdered Milk and Soy Flour with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, Enterococcus faecium and Cronobacter sakazakii. USDA annual meeting/IAFP 2017 in Tampa, FL on July 8th and 12th.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Juer Liu. 2017. Intense Pulsed Light Treatments on Particle and Flow Properties of Non-fat Milk Powder. USDA annual meeting/IAFP 2017 in Tampa, FL on July 8th and 12th.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Roger Ruan. 2017. Non-Thermal Plasma Technology for Improving Food Safety and Quality: Application and industrial implementation. IAFP 2017 Symposium. July 10, 2017. Tampa, FL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Roger Ruan, Paul Chen, David Baumler, Chi Chen, Zata Vickers, Joeljen Feirtag. 2017. CAP [2015- 08046] Development of continuous intense pulsed light technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. USDA NIFA 2017 Project Directors Meeting, Tampa Convention Center, July 8, 2017, Tampa, FL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: David Baumler. 2017. Modern Approaches to Make Foods Safer. Minneapolis AAUW Association on March 20th, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: David Baumler. 2017. Using Genome-Scale metabolic Models to Make Foods Safer. University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse on March 23th, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Qingqing Mao. 2017. Chemometric analysis of potential chemical changes in non-fat milk powder after IPL treatment. USDA annual meeting/IAFP 2017 in Tampa, FL on July 8th and 12th
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Justin Wiertzema. 2017. Intensive pulsed light process and inoculation protocol for food sample preparation. Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center annual meeting.


Progress 02/01/16 to 01/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, food equipment and product manufacturers, researchers from higher education institutes, officials from government agencies Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Dr. Roger Ruan gave a presentation titled "Non-thermal processing techologies for low moisture and liquid foods pasteurization" at the Conference of Food Engineering (COFE) 2016, Columbus, OH. Dr. David Baumler gave a presentation of this work to the Multistate MAES Research Project, S1056, "Enhancing Microbial Food Safety by Risk Analysis" meeting on October 5th, 2016 in Las Cruces, NM. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We provided an overview of our project and achievements to a group of researchers and engineers from a major local powdered food company. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Detection of foodborne pathogens in dry and powdered foods has been increasing in the United States, and is currently of major concern to the food industries and consumers. Typically microorganisms cannot grow in environments of very little water concentration such as dry powdered foods, but they may remain viable for long durations of time, and if present in high enough numbers, may cause severe foodborne outbreaks leading to hospitalizations and deaths. The main foodborne pathogen responsible for foodborne outbreaks in dry foods are strains of Salmonella spp., which every year causes over one million illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths. Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days and while many sickened individuals recover, in some cases the diarrhea is so severe the patient requires prolonged hospitalization. The proposed project integrates research with extension efforts. The outcome of the proposed project will result in a novel technology for non-thermal disinfection of powdered foods. Implementation of this technology will cost-effectively improve the safety of powdered foods, and thus enhance the US food industry's competitiveness, which will in turn increase the utilization of US agricultural products. In addition, the new technology will reduce foodborne outbreaks associated with consumption of powdered foods, which will have significant impact on the health and living standards of the consumers. We have made significant progresses in constructing and testing the designed IPL apparatus. At the end of Year 1, we expect to complete the setup of lab-scale experimental IPL system and the establishment of evaluation methodologies for the effects of IPL treatments on target bacteria and chemical and physical properties of target foods developed. We have achieved the objectives and milestone set for this reporting period and are ready to carry out the work planned for Year 2. Activity 1: Develop and construct experimental continuous IPL apparatuses A lab scale IPL system has been developed and constructed by Drs. Ruan and Chen. This is a major critical milestone achieved in this period. With an operational lab scale IPL system, we will be able to continue our work planned for next year. The system consists of three key components, namely powder feeding mechanism, powder transport/fluidization, and light source. We had gone through numerous options for these components through experimenting, computer simulation, and discussion with the consulting engineers and vendors. This was particularly the case for the fluidization component. After examining cyclone, forced air fluidize bed, and vibratory conveyor, we finally settled for a vibratory fluidized bed which is able to provide the needed fluidization to ensure exposure of powder particles to IPL treatment while avoiding violent dust movement which may pose a risk of dust explosion. The pulsed light source was purchased from Xenon Inc. Preliminary tests showed that the pulsed light generated by the device was able to effectively kill bacteria (See results in next section). Activity 2: Understand the effects of important process variables on the performance of IPL in terms of bactericidal effects and shelf-life stability The primary objective in this period was to develop a reliable dry powder bacterial inoculation protocol for inoculating soy flour, all-purpose flour and non-fat dry milk and conduct preliminary tests on the newly developed lab scale IPL system. Found surrogate Enterococcus faecium for pathogenic Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain LT2 and BSL 1 strains of C. sakazakii and Bacillus cereus. Tested log reduction of Cronobacter sakazakii on non-fat dry milk with IPL-treatment at various heights and time intervals. We were able to achieve a 3 log reduction on our first test and through various adjustments to the machine, we have just about achieved a 4 log reduction of C. sakazakii, thus demonstrating that the IPL apparatus is effective in killing log-phase Gram-negative cells and optimization of parameters are currently underway to achieve additional reduction up to 5 log units. Activity 3: Evaluate the effects of IPL on chemical and physical properties and sensory quality The primary objective of this activity is to define the impacts of IPL process parameters on the chemical and physical properties and sensory attributes of powdered foods. Non-fat milk powder was used as a test material to determine whether the IPL process could significantly alter the chemical composition of powder food. The milk powder was treated with lab scale pulsed light system (170-1100 nm) in frequency of 320 µsecond/pulse and 3 pulses/second for 10, 15, and 30 seconds, respectively. In addition, the positive control samples were prepared by exposing the same milk powder to UVC light (254 nm) for 10 and 30 min, respectively. All these samples were hydrolyzed by hydrochloric acid and then derivatized by dansyl chloride prior to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. The samples were injected into a Waters Acquity UPLC system (Milford, MA) and then separated by a BEH C18 column (Waters). The LC eluant were analyzed by a Xevo-G2-S quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (QTOFMS) for MS scan and accurate mass measurement. The data matrix generated by LC-MS analysis were processed by SIMCA-P+TM software (Umetrics, Kinnelon, NJ) for multivariate modeling and marker identification. Based on the distribution pattern of analyzed samples in the principal component analysis (PCA) model, the results of chemometric analysis indicated that the 10s treatment did not significantly affect the composition of milk powder, while the changes in specific compounds of milk were observed in the 30s samples. We are currently expanding this chemometric analysis to more samples, and will also conduct further analysis to determine the chemical identities of these compounds affected by the IPL treatment. Activity 5: Extension We have been working with powder food companies since the beginning of the project. We will continue to work with them and interact with other stakeholders. We expect to acquire publishable data from these efforts in Year 2. At the same time, we plan to disseminate our findings through professional interactions, conference presentations, online posting in our websites, industrial advisory meeting, and peer-reviewed publications.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: David Baumler. 2016. Multistate MAES Research Project, S1056, "Enhancing Microbial Food Safety by Risk Analysis meeting on October 5th, Las Cruces, NM.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ruan, R., P. Peng, Y. Cheng, S. Song, J. Liu, M. Addy, S. Deng, P. Chen. 2016. Non-thermal processing techologies for low moisture and liquid foods pasteurization. Conference of Food Engineering (COFE) 2016, Columbus, OH.