ColdSporeKill - Desenvolvimento de estratégias não-térmicas a frio para inativação hiperbárica de esporos bacterianos em alimentos

The present Project has five main objectives, as follows: 1. Develop a novel nonthermal method for inactivating bacterial spores: To establish Hyperbaric Inactivation (HI) as an effective novel nonthermal technique for the inactivation of bacterial spores, thereby addressing the limitations of traditional thermal methods that lead to considerable loss of food quality, considering that thermal methods are, by far, the most used methods to destroy spores. As such, the development of a nonthermal method to inactivate bacterial spores would be, per se, a breakthrough. 2. Evaluate the efficacy and optimize the conditions of HI to inactivate spores at RT in real food products: To assess the specific conditions for the effective application of HI in inactivating spores of pertinence for food quality (namely Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris) and safety (Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens) in real food matrices such as raw apple juice pulp, milk, and minced meat, respectively, several conditions will be tested to define pressure and dwell time binomials that maximize spore inactivation while having a minimal impact on food quality, keeping also in mind the adoption of possible mitigation strategies. These food products were selected as key case-studies because the aforementioned spore are frequently found in each case, namely A. acidoterrestris in raw apple juice and pulp, B. cereus in raw milk and C. perfringens in raw minced meat. 3. Evaluate the impact of the optimized HI conditions on the quality attributes of the selected food products: The impact of HI on the main quality attributes of the selected key-case study food products, will be evaluated, through the evaluation of microbiological and quality parameters 4. Evaluate the structural and molecular changes induced by HI on bacterial spores: To conduct microbiological analyses and revival tests to shed light on the mechanisms through which HI inactivates bacterial spores and to understand better spores’ inactivation by HI and evaluate eventual revival/survival of viable spores after HI; 5. Effectively disseminate the results from both an academic and practical approach: keeping in mind the potential impact to the industry that the present Project proposal may have in terms of addressing a topic such as the one presented here (spore inactivation) that crosses a good part of the food industry (and also the pharmaceutical industry, as this type of industry commercializes a value-added products, where a price increase due to processing costs’ increase has little impact on the commercial viability of the product, especially if these can be delivered with improved functionality), an effective dissemination of the results is also one objective of this Project, as well as the availability of the results of the Project in open information sources (open access journals, repositories, data collection databases, etc). Additionally, the practical applicability of HI as an energy-efficient sustainable food preservation method that can ensure food safety, extend shelf life, and maintain the quality of food products without the use of high temperatures to inactivate spores; Through these objectives, the Project aims to contribute to the field of food preservation and safety by introducing an innovative and disruptive solution to the challenge of bacterial spores inactivation, with potential applications extending beyond the food industry (ie, in the pharmaceutical industry)