An innovative antimicrobial system will be developed, which relates to an antimicrobial absorbent food pad that releases antioxidants to kill or inhibit the growth of foodborne pathogens in the meat liquid exudes and which will confine the antimicrobial compounds and absorbed liquids so that they will not come in contact with the food product and which those antioxidants break down to safe/inert bio-products that can be used as antimicrobials and oxidative gases in vacuum sealed pre-packed meat products. Firstly, a combination of oxidizing agents will be incorporated into absorbent food pads and their weights will be adjusted accordingly in order to follow the European regulations on safety limits. Release studies will be performed to evaluate the concentrations of the antioxidants being produced when the oxidizing agents come in contact with the liquid meat exudes. The antimicrobial activity of the absorbing food pad will be evaluated in vitro and in realistic conditions. The volume of the gases CO2 and O2 being produce from the decomposition of the antioxidants will be measure to evaluate if they are suitable to be used in modified atmosphere food packaging (MAP) applications for red meat products. The last step of this project is to assess the shelf life and possible deterioration in the quality/composition of the pre-packed red meat. The antimicrobial system has the potential to: a) extent the shelf life of package food by inhibiting/eliminating food pathogens and therefore reduce food waste, b) prevent antimicrobial resistance, c) degrade into largely benign products that have no effect in the safety/quality of the packaged product, d) be cost-effective due to the cheap and easy access of the oxidizing agents, e) decrease cost in MAP process by infusing naturally the gases CO2 and O2 into the package, f) conveniently manufactured to fit at any size/type of package container, g) be mass produced and h) increase the competitiveness of Cyprus in the active packaging industry.
Introduction: Food waste, food safety and antimicrobial resistance are global priorities these days and they need to be addressed urgently. To combat these issues we developed an innovative antimicrobial absorbent food pad that incorporates two chemical compounds and includes a one-way perforated food grade material at top of it that will act as a barrier between the pad and the product for safety concerns. The exuded liquids of the packaged product will flow freely through or around the top sheet barrier and get absorbed by the pad. When these food liquid exudes come in contact with the compounds within the pad, their antimicrobial action will be activated by slowly releasing 2 strong antioxidants in a controlled and sustained way. The combination of these two antioxidants was proven to eliminate/inhibit not only common pathogens but also resistant ones, therefore improving food safety and preventing antimicrobial resistance. Because these two oxidizing agents are unstable in aqueous media they decompose over time to safe bio-products: water, oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Figure 1: AmBA-PAD’s functionality
AmBA-PAD Advantages
- Extends packaged meat shelf-life & freshness
- Improves packaged meat appearance
- Extends meat quality and safety
- Prevents antimicrobial resistance
- Reduces food waste & spoilage (environmentally friendly)
- Cheap CO2 and O2 gas generator
- Supplement MAP process to increase its efficacy
- 3-way antimicrobial action (2 antioxidants & CO2 gas)
- High liquid absorbency
Results
| Figure 2: Total Viable Count of pathogenic bacteria mixture in 10% porcine serum solution |
| Figure 3: Release concentration of the oxidizing agents from the AmBA-PADs |
| Figure 4: Bacterial load (TVC) with pads and pork meat |
The percentage of O2 and CO2 gases in the packages with AmBA-PADs was increased by 11% and 280%, respectively.
Conclusions: The AmBA-PAD is better than the already existing systems as it combines multiple advantages and technologies into a single antimicrobial system. It can improve the appearance of the packaged product and according to the experimental data increase the shelf-life of the pork meat by at least a day. Therefore, it can be considered as an ALL-IN-ONE multi-functional antimicrobial system for the active packaging industry. AmBA-PAD can be further improved and tested with other products and become a competitive innovative product that can penetrate quickly the food packaging global market and acquire a significant share.
Sponsors
Το Έργο “ENTERPRISES/0618/0195 – AmBA-PAD” υπάγετε κάτω από το σχέδιο ‘Έξυπνη ανάπτυξη – Έρευνα στις επιχειρήσεις’ που συγχρηματοδοτείται από το Ευρωπαϊκό Ταμείο Περιφερειακής Ανάπτυξης και την Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία μέσω του Ιδρύματος Έρευνας και Καινοτομίας.