Plasma combats food spoilage

Some time ago we spoke with Jeroen Rondeel of Blue Engineering about the use of plasma in the agrofood sector. At the time it was mainly about tackling problems of hygiene and odor nuisance, but plasma has other possibilities. In an interview conducted by director Gus van der Feltz with Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, more is revealed about how plasma can be used to extend the shelf life of food.

What is plasma

What was it again? Plasma is a natural phenomenon created when energy travels through the air. This sounds complicated, but everyone knows plasma. Take a fluorescent light bulb: when it turns on, this is the plasma phase. Or a lightning bolt, another one of those familiar phenomena, is a plasma. Gus van der Feltz explains how plasma is made: "We use water and water vapor activated with plasma. We make that from just three ingredients: water, air and electricity. If you treat water with plasma, you are in fact doing the same as Mother Nature during a thunderstorm: you bring the air in the water - artificially - into the plasma phase. Plasma water is also easy to store and use when you need it."

Frites and cheese

Under the name Blue Plasma, a spin-off of Blue Engineering, there is plenty of research being done. Sometimes excursions are made to other sectors, for example for disinfecting mouthguards, but mostly the company focuses on food, agro and food processing. Van der Feltz: "We are now doing research on French fries: the potatoes are processed in a factory into French fries and go to the snack bar in bags. We are looking into whether we can extend the shelf life of these fries using a plasma treatment. This saves on transport and storage costs and prevents food waste. We are also looking at the processing of cheese. Cheeses are often left to mature for months in a warehouse, which can cause mold to develop on the rind. On the rind is not a problem, but you don't want that mold to infect the cheese when it is processed into grated cheese, for example. Plasma can play a role in this."

Time

Blue Plasma has been on the scene for a number of years. Yet despite great results, plasma technology is not yet commonplace. Van der Feltz explains: "The laws and regulations have not yet reached a point where we can always use this new technique. The demand for clean, safe, better and sustainable food is increasing and plasma is a good candidate to contribute to this. But with food, safety comes first, of course, so it's up to us to prove that this technique really works and is safe. That takes time and money. We are now building a coalition with all kinds of parties, including competitors, to make this happen. We aim to be able to use this technique in food within eighteen months."

Read more? You can find the full interview at Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo. Our conversation with Jeroen Rondeel about the deployment of plasma in hygiene and odor control can be found here.