Sci-Tech Information: In-Package Plasma Process Quickly, Effectively Kills Bacteria

Exposing packaged liquids, fruits and vegetables to an electrical field for just minutes might eliminate all traces of foodborne pathogens on those foods, according to a Purdue University study.

Kevin Keener, a professor of food science, looks for new ways to kill harmful bacteria, such as E.coli and Salmonella, that contaminate foods and cause serious illnesses and deaths. His method uses electricity to generate a plasma, or ionized gas, from atmospheric gases inside the food package.

This process creates a wide variety of bacteria-killing molecules including ozone, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen peroxide and others. These molecules only exist for a few hours and then revert back to the original atmospheric gas, leaving a bacteria-free product.

In findings published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, Keener and researchers at the Dublin Institute of Technology demonstrated that sealed-package atmospheric plasma works well to kill bacteria in growth media. Their experiments showed that bacteria on these surfaces were eliminated with 20 seconds of treatment and 24 hours of exposure to the gases it creates. Keener said the cost of the process should be comparable to current chemical and heat treatments used to sanitize foods.

"Even in the most resistant bacteria-growing media, 45 seconds of treatment gave us complete elimination of the E. coli," Keener said. "Under a microscope, we saw holes forming in the cell walls of the bacteria."

Adapting the technology for liquids could allow development of portable devices to clean drinking water in areas with contamination or that lack other purification methods. It could also allow food processors to bottle juices without first heating them, a process widely used to kill bacteria that can alter products.

"This could be developed to allow you to achieve something similar to pasteurization without the heat and quality changes that occur with that process," Keener said.

In Europe, especially, new methods are being sought as alternatives to washing foods in chlorine baths.

"Chlorine water works well on hard surfaces. But there can be issues if bacteria get inside organic matter on the produce, making chlorine ineffective," Keener said.

Keener is working with researchers at Dublin Institute of Technology, National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology at Dublin City University in Ireland, and Innovaci?³ i Recerca Industrial i Sostenible (IRIS) in Spain to develop a precommercial system for larger-scale decontamination testing. After that, he would like to build a commercial system that could be used in food-processing plants.

Future research will also consider how the process affects food quality.

"Results from recent testing of E. coli bacteria in liquid suspensions demonstrated significant bacterial reductions with no heating or visual color change." Keener said. "This suggests that atmospheric cold plasma treatment may achieve a cold pasteurization process for liquid foods to extend shelf-life and improve safety."

More information: Atmospheric Cold Plasma Inactivation of Escherichia coli in Liquid Media Inside a Sealed Package, D. Ziuzina, S. Patil, P.J. Cullen, K. M. Keener, P Bourke, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2013.

ABSTRACT
Aims: The main objective of this study was to determine the inactivation efficacy of dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric cold plasma (DBD-ACP) generated inside a sealed package for Escherichia coli ATCC 25922.
Methods and Results: A plasma discharge was generated between two circular aluminium electrodes at 40 kV. E. coli suspensions (107 CFU mlâˆ'1) in either maximum recovery diluent (MRD) or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were treated in a 96-well microtitre plate inside a sealed package. The effects of treatment time, post-treatment storage time, either direct or indirect samples exposure to the plasma discharge and suspension media were studied. Regardless of the media tested, 20 s of direct and 45 s of indirect plasma treatment resulted in complete bacterial inactivation (7 log CFU mlâˆ'1). At the lower plasma treatment times (10â€"30 s) investigated, the effects of suspension media and mode of exposure on the inactivation efficacy were evident. The inactivation efficacy was also influenced by the post-treatment storage time.
Conclusions: It was demonstrated that the novel DBD-ACP can inactivate high concentrations of E. coli suspended in liquids within sealed packages in seconds.

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Business Process Management: Its Description and Uses

Business process management or BPM is an organized method of making the workflow of a certain organization more efficient and more adept at adjusting to an environment that is always changing.

The aim of Business Process Management is to lessen miscommunication and human mistakes and divert the attention of stakeholders on the necessities of their roles. BPM is a subsection of infrastructure management which is an administrative field focused on preserving and improving the equipment and central operations of an organization.

Oftentimes, BPM is a connection point inside a company between the IT department and line-of-business or LOB. The Business Process Management Notation or BPMN and Business Process Execution Language or BPEL were made to enable communication between LOB and IT. The two languages are very easy to learn and read, so people in the business world could speedily learn how to use them in design processes. The BPMN and BPEL both follow the canons in programming, so procedures designed in IT or LOB are less complicated for developers to interpret into hard code.

Today, there are three various types of Business Process Management frameworks offered in the market. Horizontal BPM frameworks concentrate on the development and design of development of business procedures and are normally dealing with reuse and technology. Vertical BPM frameworks concentrate on a definite set of harmonized works and have built templates that could be configured and installed easily. Full-service BPM templates on the other hand have the following five basic parts:

1. Workflow Engine
2. Business Rules Engine
3. Project Scoping and Project Discovery
4. Process Modeling and Design
5. Testing and Simulation

Businesses today run in a different environment when compared to those in the 80s and 90s. Oftentimes, legacy systems are function, product, and data- centric. Business establishments these days want constant change. With the ever-changing cycles today, suppliers and clients and customers expect to interrelate through many different channels. Also, there is currently a rising demand for straight-through processing and self-service.

In this new era, wiser systems are a must in order to cope up with quick changes in many business processes spanning many legacy systems. Such systems likewise need to be capable of receiving input from an array of new sources such as data-feeds, Web services, call centers, forms, internet, and other applications. And in order to attain such dexterity, businesses and other establishments are starting to apply the tools and approaches associated with Business Process Management.

If you want to learn more about Business Process Management in Perth and technology consultants in Perth, visit Conducive website, Conducive.com.au.

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Basic Points of Implementing an Automated Document Workflow Process

Any business, no matter how big or small, has some form of document workflow set in place to make sure things run smoothly. The workflow for documents usually involves, order processing, applications, email, invoice and other documents. This sort of activity occurs in all businesses every single day, which is why it's important to make sure that it works as efficiently as possible.

What is a workflow anyway?

In a nutshell, a workflow refers to the step by step procedures that are undertaken by a person or group of people in order to complete a particular task. The several issues usually encountered by most business organizations with their document workflow are:

• Improper distribution of paper work.
• Documents that gets lost during transfer from one stage of the workflow to another.
• Costs involved in processing, storing, and retrieving documents.
• Transferring documents from one office to another.
• Inability to locate necessary information for customer service.

There are many ways to improve a business organization's workflow. One of the best ways to do that is by automating majority of the routines that take a lot of time and effort.

Where to start?

The best place to start improving document workflow is finding out which document takes the most time and money to process. While it would make sense to automate everything, it is still more prudent to implement an automated system slowly. That way, the integration of the new system won't make matters worse.

It's a common misconception that implementing a new system will immediately make things better; it's better to test the system on a small scale before implementing it on a more massive scale. This way, the benefits of automating routines are more visible and can be compared with current manual document processes.

What is the next step?

Once a process has been chosen, simply observe the selected process in order to evaluate it. Start from the very beginning and go through everything until the very end. It's important to understand all the physical steps involved in processing documents.

It would also be prudent to ask the people who are part of the document workflow. Ask them questions about the things that make processing a document time consuming. Determine which of these can be automated and which of these cannot.

Finally, make a list that outlines all the pertinent points in automating the document process.

Find the software that works best.

The final step is finding the best solution to the problems that are present in the outline is to make a list. There are a lot of document workflow solutions out there. Business organizations are spoilt for choice as a lot of companies offer excellent business solutions.

Always look for the ones that address the needs first. One way to look at how well a new system will work is by looking at the cost of implementing the new workflow system and comparing it to the benefits.

Document workflow solutions are a good long term investment that will surely increase overall productivity in virtually any business organization.

Looking for a company which will do document workflow and document workflow for you? We offer the services at Tallega.com

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