The invention is a system designed for the sanitation of the external surface of food packages, as well as tools for food processing.
| Patent title | Apparatus for sanitizing containers and tools |
|---|---|
| Thematic area | Bioeconomy, Agriculture and Environment |
| Ownership | ALMAPLASMA S.R.L., ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA' DI BOLOGNA |
| Inventors | Vittorio Colombo, FILIPPO CAPELLI, Pietro Rocculi, Silvia Tappi, Matteo Gherardi, Romolo Laurita |
| Protection | Italy, with the possibility to extend internationally |
| Licensing status | Available for development agreements, option, license and other exploitation agreements |
| Keywords | Food, Sanitation, packaging, SARS-COV-2, sterilization |
| Filed on | 17 December 2020 |
Many diseases can spread from man to man when a healthy person comes into contact with someone sick: for example, an infected person can contaminate a container in which a food is stored, transported or served, handling this container with the infected hands or through droplets of biological fluids by coughing, sneezing or exhaling.
This is a risk especially for fresh foods consumed without prior cooking, for which good practices in production and prevention are the only way to avoid contamination and ensure the health of consumers.
The use of conventional sanitizing chemical solutions, such as those based on hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, sodium hypochlorite and alcohols, on the outside of food packaging, is certainly the methodology most applied in this historical phase of the pandemic, both by professionals and consumers. However, this technique has great limitations, such as high costs as well as the use of chemicals, with obvious disadvantages in terms of economic and environmental sustainability. In addition, their use is not allowed mainly on specific types of packaging materials and their effect is often null when chemical sanitation procedures are carried out by untrained people, such as consumers.
The invention is a system that allows to sanitize food product containers, and to sanitize the external surface of packaged food products, or to sterilize and reduce the bacterial / viral load of an object, in order to make it aseptic or in any case decreease as much as possible the presence of elements harmful to the health of an individual, such as, for example, a virus.
The system consists of a processing chamber, where packaged food can be placed, and a plasma generator.
These materials to be sanitized can be plastic, paper, glass or metal.
Applications:
- Large distribution (GDO)
- Distribution of packaged foods
- Canteens
Advantages:
- The system is effective in sanitizing from SARS-COV-2.
- It has a low environmental and economic impact, because it does not use chemical agents, nor does it generate residues to be disposed of.
- It does not compromise the quality of the food and its characteristics, nor its shelf-life.
- It allows the decontamination of complex-shaped packaging.