Food Tray Research Articles

Development of Bacterial Spore Pouches as a Tool to Evaluate the Sterilization Efficiency-A Case Study with Microwave Sterilization Using Clostridium sporogenes and Geobacillus stearothermophilus.

In this study, novel spore pouches were developed using mashed potato as a food model inoculated with either Geobacillus stearothermophilus or Clostridium sporogenes spores. These spore pouches were used to evaluate the sterilization efficiency of Coaxially induced microwave pasteurization and sterilization (CiMPAS) as a case study. CiMPAS technology combines microwave energy (915 MHz) along with hot water immersion to sterilize food in polymeric packages. The spore pouches were placed at pre-determined specific locations, especially cold spots in each food tray before being processed using two regimes (R-121 and R-65), which consisted of 121 °C and 65 °C at 12 and 22 kW, respectively, followed by recovery and enumeration of the surviving spores. To identify cold spots or the location for inoculation, mashed potato was spiked with Maillard precursors and processed through CiMPAS, followed by measurement of lightness values (*L-values). Inactivation equivalent to of 1–2 Log CFU/g and >6 Log CFU/g for Geobacillus stearothermophilus and Clostridium sporogenes spores, respectively was obtained on the cold spots using R-121, which comprised of a total processing time of 64.2 min. Whereas, inactivation of <1 and 2–3 Log CFU/g for G. stearothermophilus and C. sporogenes spores, respectively on the cold spots was obtained using R-65 (total processing time of 68.3 min), whereas inactivation of 1–3 Log CFU/g of C. sporogenes spores was obtained on the sides of the tray. The results were reproducible across three processing replicates for each regime and inactivation at the specific locations were clearly distinguishable. The study indicated a strong potential to use spore pouches as a tool for validation studies of microwave-induced sterilization.

Characterization of benzoyl treated sugar palm/glass fibre hybrid composites

This paper studies the influence of glass fibre addition and benzoylation treatment on the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of sugar palm composites. Glass fibre (GF) was added in various fibre ratios: 30%, 50% and 70%, related to the amount of sugar palm fibre (SPF). The results obtained revealed that the EP/30TSPF/70 G F composites exhibited the best tensile properties by increasing the tensile strength by 55.7%. For thermal analysis, the results show that EP/TSPF/GF composites had the most improvement in the initial and final degradation temperature. It can be concluded that, benzoylation treatment help improves the adhesion of the SPF to the GF and to the epoxy matrix. Glass fibre addition helps enhanced the characteristics of the SPF composites as the GF overcome the weakness of SPF. This hybrid composites show promising characteristics to be applied for non-structural application as example food tray table.

Microplastic contamination of packaged meat: Occurrence and associated risks

Abstract Food trays are often made from extruded polystyrene (XPS), and quantities of millimetre-sized particles of this material are trapped between the meat they contain and the sealing film. The purpose of this study is to identify the chemical nature of these particles and quantify them. Furthermore, the quantification of synthetic or organic fibres was also carried out. The results show that XPS microplastics (MP-XPS) contaminate food products at a level ranging from 4.0 to 18.7 MP-XPS/kg of packaged meat. Analysis shows that these microplastics are likely to come from the XPS trays. These particles are difficult to remove by mere rinsing and are probably cooked before being consumed. However, at this stage, it is not clear from the scientific literature whether there is a potential risk to humans associated with the ingestion of MP-XPS. In addition to these MP-XPS, it should also be pointed out that fibres can also contaminate meat.

Multidisciplinary Approach to Stop the Spread of Clostridium Difficile (C. diff) in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) Unit

Topic Significance & Study Purpose/Background/Rationale C. difficile is the most common organism to cause healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in the United States (Dubberke, Carling, Carrico, Donskey, Loo, McDonald, et al., 2014). C. diff infection (CDI) rates in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) recipients are up to 9-fold higher than those in other inpatient units due to weakened immune systems, long hospitalizations and antibiotic treatments (Bruminhent, Wang, Hu, Wagner, Sunday, Hegarty, et al., 2014). The nursing team and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) personnel on the HSCT unit noticed the cluster of HAI CDI. From January to June 2019 the unit had a total of 10 cases; 6 cases alone were in May 2019, raising concern about daily practice. Evidence-based strategies have been implemented to reduce environmental contamination and increase education of patients, visitors, and staff. This paper describes how the unit established a “ZERO Harm” comprehensive plan to reduce the number of HAI CDI by 20% in six months on a 16-bed HSCT inpatient unit. Methods, Intervention, & Analysis Established meetings with Environmental Service (EVS) and Food & Nutrition (F&N) and nursing team to discuss action plan. • Implemented double cleaning of room, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) inspection for isolation rooms. • Educated staff regarding sending stool specimens for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. • Utilized disposable food trays, stethoscopes and pillows. • Implemented a “No sharing” rule for mobile equipment such as weight scales. • Validated on proper cleanliness of shared equipment such as glucometers by the fluorescent dye. • Educated clinicians in the proper practice of PPE and hand hygiene. Findings & Interpretation The HSCT unit had 13 cases of HAI CDI in 2017, 25 cases in 2018 and 10 cases from January to June 2019. The intervention started in July 2019 and HAI CDI data will be collected until December 2019 for post-intervention evaluation. Discussion & Implications Environmental cleanliness, proper precautions, and education are vital to reduce CDI. Collaboration between nurses, IPC, EVS, and F&N is essential to stop CDI transmission. Utilizing ATP testing and the fluorescent dye method helps to validate proper cleanliness of the environment. Despite reducing HAI CDI to one case in August 2019, there were opportunities identified related to equipment cleanliness and educational gap. Obtaining disposable curtains and additional weight scales is considered. The future implementation of a “clean protocol” for nursing is next step.

Food tray sealing fault detection using hyperspectral imaging and PCANet

Food trays are very common in shops and supermarkets. Fresh food packaged in trays must be correctly sealed to protect the internal atmosphere and avoid contamination or deterioration. Due to the speed of production, it is not possible to have human quality inspection. Thus, automatic fault detection is a must to reach high production volume. This work describes a deep neural network based on Principal Component Analysis Network (PCANet) for food tray sealing fault detection. The input data come from hyperspectral cameras, showing more characteristics than regular industrial cameras or the human eye as they capture the spectral properties for each pixel. The proposed classification algorithm is divided into three main parts. In the first part, a single image is extracted from the hypercube by using pixel-level fusion method: the cube hyperspectral images are transformed into two-dimensional images to use as the input to the PCANet. Second, a PCANet structure is applied to the fused image. The PCANet has two filter bank layers and one binarization layer (three stages), obtaining a feature vector. Finally, a classification algorithm is used, having the feature vector as input data. The SVM and KNN classifiers were used. The database used in this work is provided by food industry professionals, containing eleven types of contamination in the seal area of the food tray and using metallic opaque cover film. Obtained results show that the design of our framework proposed achieves accuracy of 90% (87% F-measure) and 89% (89% F-measure) for SVM and KNN, respectively. Computation time for classification shows that a food tray speed of 65 trays per second could be reached. As a final result, the influence of the dataset size is analyzed, having PCANet a similar behavior for an extended and a reduced dataset.

NOTTO transplant specific guidelines with reference to COVID-19

NOTTO transplant specific guidelines with reference to COVID-19

Comparative study of carbon-based nanofillers for improving the properties of HDPE for potential applications in food tray packaging

High-density polyethylene (HDPE)/carbon filler composites for potential applications in food tray packaging were prepared by melt compounding HDPE with one-dimensional (1D)-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), two-dimensional (2D)-graphene oxide (GO) and three-dimensional (3D)-carbon black (CB) on a twin-screw extruder. The morphology of fillers inside the HDPE matrix was characterized and correlated to the mechanical, thermal and barrier properties of the nanocomposites. The results showed the distinct effect of CB on the mechanical, thermal and barrier properties of HDPE from MWCNT and GO. The morphological analysis revealed uniform dispersion for all the fillers, but the agglomerate formation was a lot more evident in MWCNT-based nanocomposites. Ball milling solved the large agglomerate formation for MWCNT and produced nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties. In comparison to 1D and 2D nanofillers, the 3D-CB filler showed remarkable contribution to tensile toughness but caused a reduction in barrier properties of HDPE, the increase in tensile toughness was attributed to uniform dispersion of the filler, enhanced mechanical interlocking between filler and polymer, appearance of high degree of crazing on tested samples and increase in nanocomposite internal temperature during tensile testing.

Chemical recycling advances

Big firms are rolling out more chemical recycling initiatives as they face public pressure to act on the plastic waste issue. Unlike mechanical recycling, which primarily sorts and washes plastic waste for reprocessing into plastic goods, chemical recycling breaks the waste into its raw materials so they can be made into virgin plastic again. BP will spend $25 million to build a pilot plant next year in Naperville, Illinois, to test its new Infinia technology, which breaks down polyethylene terephthalate into its raw materials: purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and ethylene glycol. The company, a major producer of PTA, says the process can handle hard-to-recycle materials, such as food trays and colored bottles. In another development, the Finnish energy company Neste has signed an agreement with the recycling firm Remondis to develop chemical recycling. The companies aim to process 200,000 metric tons (t) of plastic waste per year. And Eastman Chemical

Measuring Food Waste and Consumption by Children Using Photography.

A photography method was used to measure waste on food trays in school lunch in France, using the 5-point quarter-waste scale. While food waste has been studied extensively in US school lunches, the structure of the French lunch meal is quite different, with multiple courses, and vegetables (raw and cooked) in more than one course. Vegetables were the most wasted food category as usually seen in school lunch research, especially cooked vegetables, which were wasted at rates of 66%–83%. Raw vegetables were still wasted more than main dishes, starchy products, dairy, fruit, and desserts. Vegetables were also the most disliked food category, with the classes of vegetables falling in the same order as for waste. Waste and liking were highly correlated. Sensory characteristics of the food were cited as a main reason for liking/disliking. There is a strong connection between food liking and food consumption, and this connection should be the basis for future attempts to modify school lunch to improve consumption. The photographic method of measuring food waste at an individual level performed well.

Measles outbreak from Hong Kong International Airport to the hospital due to secondary vaccine failure in healthcare workers.

To report an outbreak of measles with epidemiological link between Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and a hospital. Epidemiological investigations, patients' measles serology, and phylogenetic analysis of the hemagglutinin (H) and nucleoprotein (N) genes of measles virus isolates were conducted. In total, 29 HKIA staff of diverse ranks and working locations were infected with measles within 1 month. Significantly fewer affected staff had history of travel than non-HKIA-related measles patients [10 of 29 (34.5%) vs 28 of 35 (80%); P < .01]. Of 9 airport staff who could recall detailed exposure history, 6 (66.7%) had visited self-service food premises at HKIA during the incubation period, where food trays, as observed during the epidemiological field investigation, were not washed after use. Furthermore, 1 airport baggage handler who was admitted to hospital A before rash onset infected 2 healthcare workers (HCWs) known to have 2 doses of MMR vaccination with positive measles IgG and lower viral loads in respiratory specimens. Infections in these 2 HCWs warranted contact tracing of another 168 persons (97 patients and 71 HCWs). Phylogenetic comparison of H and N gene sequences confirmed the clonality of outbreak strains. Despite good herd immunity with overall seroprevalence of >95% against measles, major outbreaks of measles occurred among HKIA staff having daily contact with many international pssengers. Lessons from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and measles outbreaks suggested that an airport can be a strategic epidemic center. Pre-exanthem transmission of measles from airport staff to HCWs with secondary vaccine failure poses a grave challenge to hospital infection control.

CCRN Across the Life Span.

CCRN Across the Life Span.

Experimental Study of a Solar Oven based on Evacuated Tube Collector in Indian Climatic Conditions

A solar oven system of evacuated tube collector using copper food tray was fabricated and experimental analysis was done to evaluate its performance. The experiments conducted on clear sunny days in the month of December in NIT Kurukshetra, Haryana. The maximum temperature obtained from the food tray was 84°C. Food items can be cooked, fry or bake with this solar oven. Potatoes were baked with this solar oven and kept warm for a time period of about 5 hours and water is heated up to 81°C within 1 hour. The testing of solar oven was carried with and without cooking load. Without any cooking load, the maximum temperature of food tray observed was 84°C. With cooking load, the maximum temperature observed was 81°C. In this solar oven, reflecting sheet is being used beneath the evacuated tube to increase the absorption rate of the evacuated tube. This paper gives experimental results from portable solar oven for water heating and baking potatoes.

EMAP technique application to obtain minimally processed eights and slices fresh cut of ‘Spinoso Sardo’ globe artichoke

The artichoke is characterized by a high respiration rate even higher when processed into eighths or slices. The EMAP technique allows controlling the concentration of O(2) and CO(2) at equilibrium inside a package of the fresh produce, increasing the shelf life. Several reports showed that the use of MAP and EMAP to obtain minimally processed whole artichokes are in progress as well as the attempts to apply the same technique to packaged eighths and slices. The aim of this research is to determine the required gas transmission rates of the sealing film for eighths and slices fresh cut artichokes by using a gas mixture composed by 5% O(2), 5% CO(2) and N(2) balance. The artichokes are subjected to cut off the upper thorns and to pull out of the harder lateral bracts, followed by sanitizing treatment in chlorinated water. Subsequently the artichokes are processed to obtain eights and slices, placed in chlorinated water, washed in tap water, dipped in anti-browning solution and dried by means of a centrifuge. Finally, the different products are packaged using polypropylene food trays (800 mL) wrapped with PP films of know gas permeability (O(2) TR=3.000-13.000 mL m‑2 24 h‑1 atm(‑1). The film features have been identified through respiration rate tests carried out by using the static and permeable methods. To calculate the respiration rate, the gas composition inside the packages was measured daily until an equilibrium atmosphere was reached. Evaluation of the designed packages was carried out for packages with different combinations of net weights (120 and 150 g) and chilled storage conditions (1°C passive refrigeration and 6°C conventional refrigeration). The microbiological shelf life of the products up to 10 days was assessed. All the samples stored at 6°C in conventional refrigeration conditions showed redness coloration on the products’ surface due to oxidation phenomena of the exposed plant tissues. The longer shelf life was obtained by using a film with lower permeability to oxygen, stored at 1°C in passive refrigeration conditions.

친환경 소재 유아용 식판개발에 관한 연구

친환경 소재 유아용 식판개발에 관한 연구

Resolving the so-called “probabilistic paradoxes in legal reasoning” with Bayesian networks

Examples of reasoning problems such as the twins problem and poison paradox have been proposed by legal scholars to demonstrate the limitations of probability theory in legal reasoning. Specifically, such problems are intended to show that use of probability theory results in legal paradoxes. As such, these problems have been a powerful detriment to the use of probability theory – and particularly Bayes theorem – in the law. However, the examples only lead to ‘paradoxes’ under an artificially constrained view of probability theory and the use of the so-called likelihood ratio, in which multiple related hypotheses and pieces of evidence are squeezed into a single hypothesis variable and a single evidence variable. When the distinct relevant hypotheses and evidence are described properly in a causal model (a Bayesian network), the paradoxes vanish. In addition to the twins problem and poison paradox, we demonstrate this for the food tray example, the abuse paradox and the small town murder problem. Moreover, the resulting Bayesian networks provide a powerful framework for legal reasoning.

Simulation of Pedestrian Evacuation in University Canteen Based on Cellular Automata

In this study, we firstly build up an exit choice model to describe the pedestrians' exit choice behavior in a specific place, i.e., university canteens. The pedestrians are assumed to minimize their evacuation time in choosing exits by explicitly considering the estimated evacuation time and effects of pedestrians' destinations. In addition, the behavior of food tray return is also captured in the proposed route choice model for pedestrians. Fusing the exit choice model and the route choice model into a cellular automata (CA)-based pedestrian simulation model, we simulate the pedestrian evacuation process in university canteen and the results illustrate the effectiveness of the modeling framework in terms of describing the evacuation process in university canteens. Specifically, destination is identified as a key influence factor for pedestrian evacuation, and pedestrians tend to select the exit that is closer to their destinations. If it is required to return the food tray to designated spots before leaving the canteen, the evacuation efficiency is significantly reduced. The simulation result can also assist in determining the optimal number of tray-return spots if maximum evacuation efficient is to be achieved. In presence of the specific parameter settings and canteen layout in the case study example, it is recommended to deploy four tray-return spots in the university canteen.

Grab, Pay, and Eat: Semantic Food Detection for Smart Restaurants

The increase in awareness of people toward their nutritional habits has drawn considerable attention to the field of automatic food analysis. Focusing on self-service restaurants environment, automatic food analysis is not only useful for extracting nutritional information from foods selected by customers, it is also of high interest to speed up the service solving the bottleneck produced at the cashiers in times of high demand. In this paper, we address the problem of automatic food tray analysis in canteens and restaurants environment, which consists in predicting multiple foods placed on a tray image. We propose a new approach for food analysis based on convolutional neural networks, we name Semantic Food Detection, which integrates in the same framework food localization, recognition and segmentation. We demonstrate that our method improves the state-of-art food detection by a considerable margin on the public dataset UNIMIB2016, achieving about 90% in terms of F-measure, and thus provides a significant technological advance toward the automatic billing in restaurant environments.

Editorial and News

Editorial and News

Reactive processing preparation of sustainable composites from canola meal reinforced by chemical modification

Canola meal (CM), a by-product of canola oil extraction, was modified by poly (styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) (PSG) and could potentially be used as a sustainable natural composite. Infrared analysis indicated that PSG could efficiently react with the proteins in CM and become covalently bonded. DSC results revealed that the modified CM composites showed new glass transition temperatures (Tg) decreasing with the introduction of PSG, which were attributed to the disruption of intermolecular association. Torque curves and melt flow index tests showed the flow property of the modified CM composites increased due to interference by PSG of the hydrogen and disulfide bonding among the protein species. DMA results showed greater amorphous character for the modified CM composites and new glassy plateaus with increased storage moduli, indicating a change in molecular structure and enhancement in mechanical property and usability below Tg. Furthermore, the thermostability, the tensile strength, and the elastic moduli of the modified CM composites increased because of the formation of cross-linked proteins in the CM composites, which will potentially increase the application value in some fields, such as single-use agricultural planting containers replacing high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) containers, and food or coffee trays.

Editorial and News

Editorial and News