(Press-News.org) In a collaborative effort to improve the food industry, Dr. Mustafa Akbulut, professor of chemical engineering, and Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, professor of horticultural science, have developed a two-step coating solution for galvanized steel that is more hygienic and reduces the risk of corrosion.
Galvanized steel containers and surfaces are used for harvested produce because of their durability, strength and lower cost compared to stainless steel. However, bacteria residing in storage containers can cause corrosion.
The new coating will reduce corrosion by at least 70 percent, Akbulut said.
“This material is more durable and doesn’t experience corrosion,” Akbulut said. “The surface itself can repel the bacteria so it doesn’t get germs stuck on it. Normal steel tends to collect pathogens and microorganisms, but the coated steel is overcoming that issue. These are the main benefits of this technology.”
The coating method for galvanized steel exhibits superhydrophobicity and antifouling capabilities, effectively inhibiting the attachment of fungi, bacteria and mud. This research was published in the Journal of Food Engineering.
“This will have an impact because the people that consume fruits and vegetables trust that they’re buying something safe, and it will not affect their health,” Cisneros-Zevallos said. “Right now, the industry does their best to reduce those risks, but you will hear about outbreaks of these contaminations and people getting sick. There are sometimes reported deaths because of these events.”
During the coating process, the material properties, structural properties and mechanical strength of steel do not change. Only the very top layer of the steel is coated, since that is where food comes in contact with the surface, Akbulut said.
Research shows that this coating decreases bacterial strains over seven days and reduces adherence to Aspergillus, a foodborne fungi.
This coating technology can potentially be used on grain storage silos, along with other food-related storage units and containers, according to the article. This is a significant boon to the multidisciplinary fields of food engineering, safety and processing.
The galvanized steel coating will also benefit agricultural farmland, according to Akbulut.
“Many of the food-produced commodities come to the industrial setting in some sort of soil, debris or mud,” Akbulut said. “So, even if the produce is washed, these commodities can cause contamination. With this technology, we are reducing mud-related contamination.”
With the information gathered from the research, Cisneros-Zevallos said they could eventually adapt and utilize these technologies to revolutionize fewer outbreaks and positively impact the food industry.
“Our goal is to make the industry adopt this,” Cisneros-Zevallos said. “Processors will benefit in the sense that they will be handling something that they can deliver in a trustful way to consumers, and consumers will benefit because they will have something that will be safe for them.”
From the field to the consumer, contamination can be minimized by using these kinds of surfaces and avoiding cross-contamination, as explained by Cisneros-Zevallos.
“With this research, we are ensuring that the technological developments from other fields are being pursued and implemented in agriculture,” Cisneros-Zevallos said. “The agricultural field is catching up with other technologies. This coating directly impacts our daily life and the food we’re trying to make safer.”
Contributors to the research include doctoral students Wentao Zhou, Shuhao Liu, and William DeFlorio from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, along with Professor Jun Kyun Oh and doctoral students Sang Ha Song and Hayoung Choi in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Dankook University.
A Food Manufacturing Technologies Program grant and Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this work.
This work is also partially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government. The Department of Polymer Science and Engineering was supported through the Research-Focused Department Promotion & Interdisciplinary Convergence Research Project as a part of the University Innovation Support Program for Dankook University in 2022.
By Raven Wuebker, Texas A&M Engineering
###
END
Researchers create coating solution for safer food storage
To combat bacteria that gets on food after it’s farmed, two researchers have created a galvanized steel coating for food containers.
2024-03-01
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
An overgrowth of nerve cells appears to cause lingering symptoms after recurrent UTIs
2024-03-01
DURHAM, N.C. – A perplexing problem for people with recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs) is persistent pain, even after antibiotics have successfully cleared the bacteria.
Now Duke Health researchers have identified the likely cause - an overgrowth of nerve cells in the bladder.
The finding, appearing March 1 in the journal Science Immunology, provides a potential new approach to managing symptoms of recurring UTIs that would more effectively target the problem and reduce unnecessary antibiotic usage.
“Urinary tract infections account for almost 25% of infections in women,” said senior author Soman Abraham, Ph.D., professor in the departments ...
New findings on the immune system
2024-03-01
T follicular helper cells (Tfh) are essential for strong antibody-mediated reactions of our immune system during infections and vaccinations. However, if they get out of control, this can cause diseases such as autoimmunity, allergies or cancer. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn investigated the underlying mechanisms of Tfh cell development in a mouse model and thus decoded their internal networking. They hope that this will lead to new strategies for the development of highly effective vaccines and new therapies to combat various diseases. The results have ...
Most smokers in England wrongly believe vaping is at least as harmful as smoking
2024-03-01
More than half of smokers in England wrongly believe that vaping is more harmful or as harmful as smoking, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open and funded by Cancer Research UK, looked at survey responses from 28,393 smokers in England between 2014 and 2023.
The research team found that public perceptions of e-cigarettes had worsened considerably over the past decade, with an overall increase in the perceived harm of e-cigarettes since 2021, coinciding with a sharp rise in vaping among young ...
New antibodies target “dark side” of influenza virus protein
2024-03-01
WHAT:
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified antibodies targeting a hard-to-spot region of the influenza virus, shedding light on the relatively unexplored “dark side” of the neuraminidase (NA) protein head. The antibodies target a region of the NA protein that is common among many influenza viruses, including H3N2 subtype viruses, and could be a new target for countermeasures. The research, led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center, part of NIH, was published today in Immunity.
Influenza, or flu, sickens millions ...
Fred Hutch announces 2024 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recipients
2024-03-01
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center announced 12 recipients of the 2024 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which recognizes exceptional achievement in graduate studies in the biological sciences.
This year’s recipients come from U.S. and international research institutions with thesis topics that include brain signals related to learning and emotion, bacterial pathogens and health, AI algorithms in rare disease diagnosis and treatment, and immune cells involved in brain tumors.
“Weintraub awardees showcase how scientists are using advancements in technology to explore questions that have been out of reach,” said Jihong Bai, ...
New academic journal on artificial intelligence launched
2024-03-01
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering has launched a new open-access academic journal focused on advancements in artificial intelligence.
The journal AI Letters aims to fill a gap in peer-reviewed publications covering AI research. Department Head Shahram Rahimi and Assistant Research Professor Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz, editors-in-chief of the journal, saw the need for a publication that could quickly share new ideas and insights in AI, a hot topic ...
UMaine researchers use GPS-tracked icebergs in novel study to improve climate models
2024-03-01
Over the last four decades, warming climate and ocean temperatures have rapidly altered the Greenland Ice Sheet, creating concern for marine ecosystems and weather patterns worldwide. The environment has challenged scientists in their attempts to measure how water moves around and melts the ice sheet because equipment can be destroyed by icebergs floating near the glaciers.
Collected using a novel approach, research from the University of Maine has unearthed new information to help scientists better understand circulation patterns of ocean water around glaciers. A group of pioneers in glacial research attached GPS devices to icebergs and used their mobility to understand fjord circulation, ...
A mental process that leads to putting off an unpleasant task
2024-03-01
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Putting off a burdensome task may seem like a universal trait, but new research suggests that people whose negative attitudes tend to dictate their behavior in a range of situations are more likely to delay tackling the task at hand.
The psychological term to describe this mental process is called valence weighting bias, which describes people’s tendency to adapt in new circumstances by drawing more strongly from either their positive or negative attitudes – or, in the context of approaching an unpleasant task, whether negative or positive internal “signals” carry the most weight in guiding the final behavior.
“And ...
The role of history in how efficient color names evolve
2024-03-01
Suppose two speakers of the same language are playing a guessing game where each has the same color swatches, and Player 1 tries to get Player 2 to guess a hue by naming the color. If the second player consistently guesses correctly as often as possible, that indicates their language has an efficient color naming system.
Past research has shown that efficient color vocabularies are constrained both by how people perceive colors and by how much they want or need to communicate about a given color. For example, Penn researchers found in a 2021 study that the need to communicate about reds and yellows is high across languages, while greens are more important in some languages.
Now, ...
AI outperforms humans in standardized tests of creative potential
2024-03-01
Score another one for artificial intelligence. In a recent study, 151 human participants were pitted against ChatGPT-4 in three tests designed to measure divergent thinking, which is considered to be an indicator of creative thought.
Divergent thinking is characterized by the ability to generate a unique solution to a question that does not have one expected solution, such as “What is the best way to avoid talking about politics with my parents?” In the study, GPT-4 provided more original and elaborate answers than the human participants.
The study, “The current state of artificial intelligence generative ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Insulin resistance is linked to over 30 diseases – and to early death in women, study of people in the UK finds
Innovative semaglutide hydrogel could reduce diabetes shots to once a month
Weight loss could reduce the risk of severe infections in people with diabetes, UK research suggests
Long-term exposure to air pollution and a lack of green space increases the risk of hospitalization for respiratory conditions
Better cardiovascular health in early pregnancy may offset high genetic risk
Artificial intelligence method transforms gene mutation prediction in lung cancer: DeepGEM data releases at IASLC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer
Antibody–drug conjugate I-DXd shows clinically meaningful response in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer
IASLC Global Survey on biomarker testing reveals progress and persistent barriers in lung cancer biomarker testing
Research shows pathway to developing predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors
Just how dangerous is Great Salt Lake dust? New research looks for clues
Maroulas appointed Associate Vice Chancellor, Director of AI Tennessee
New chickadee research finds cognitive skills impact lifespan
Cognitive behavioral therapy enhances brain circuits to relieve depression
Terasaki Institute awarded $2.3 Million grant from NIH for organ transplantation research using organs-on-a-chip technology
Atoms on the edge
Postdoc takes multipronged approach to muon detection
Mathematical proof: Five satellites needed for precise navigation
Scalable, multi-functional device lays groundwork for advanced quantum applications
Falling for financial scams? It may signal early Alzheimer’s disease
Integrating MRI and OCT for new insights into brain microstructure
Designing a normative neuroimaging library to support diagnosis of traumatic brain injury
Department of Energy announces $68 million in funding for artificial intelligence for scientific research
DOE, ORNL announce opportunity to define future of high-performance computing
Molecular simulations, supercomputing lead to energy-saving biomaterials breakthrough
Low-impact yoga and exercise found to help older women manage urinary incontinence
Genetic studies reveal new insights into cognitive impairment in schizophrenia
Researcher develops technology to provide cleaner energy and cleaner water
Expect the unexpected: nanoscale silver unveils intrinsic self-healing abilities
nTIDE September 2024 Jobs Report: Gains in employment for people with disabilities appear to level off after reducing gaps with non-disabled workers
Wiley enhances NMR Spectral Library Collection with extensive new databases
[Press-News.org] Researchers create coating solution for safer food storageTo combat bacteria that gets on food after it’s farmed, two researchers have created a galvanized steel coating for food containers.