Future Technologies for Assuring Healthy and Safe Foods - Food Safety

Safety first
Future technologies for healthy foods

The challenge
New research indicates that some pathogenic microbes may survive existing food processing techniques, reducing shelf life and posing a potential food safety risk. To access and maintain international markets, Victorian producers need to prove their processed food is safe and stable.

The strategy
To understand the effects of new processing technologies in deactivating pathogens, and efficient testing to confirm they have been deactivated.

The project

• Use genomics technology to find out why some pathogens survive in existing food processing technologies, intially in the dairy and meat industries.
• Adapt processing technologies to deactivate them.
• Develop simple tests for industry to confirm they have been deactivated.