University of Maine researcher has received a $4.9-million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop ways of using non-thermal technologies to control microbial contamination of low-moisture foods.
Dr. Vivian Wu, a professor of food science, will be lead researcher on a five-year project to explore new technologies to better control microbial contamination of low-moisture foods, such as cereals, nuts and spices, without using heat.
“Heat is a very effective way to control microbial contamination, but there are food products that heat just doesn’t work that well,” she said, mentioning such foods as produce and grains. “We want to develop nonthermal processing techniques to eliminate, to maintain the safety of produce and low-moisture food.”
FoodWorld 