Dr. Ali Demirci has been a pioneer in Pulsed Light (PL) research for more than two decades. A professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Penn State University, he has published extensively on food safety and non-thermal decontamination technologies and...
When it comes to food safety, bacteria like Listeria and Salmonella get most of the attention. But mold is an equally serious threat—often underestimated, yet responsible for recalls, health risks, and persistent contamination issues in food processing facilities....
The food packaging industry is feeling the heat these days, pressured from all sides to modernize materials and processes. Food recalls continue to be in the news. In 2024, a listeriosis outbreak linked to deli meats resulted in 10 deaths and 60 hospitalizations...
With all the emphasis on food safety, why do problems keep happening? A recent outbreak at Boar’s Head linked to Listeria contamination resulted in 10 deaths and 59 hospitalizations across 19 states. This led to a recall of over 7 million pounds of deli meats. And...
A few decades ago, yogurt was just another minor food product, enjoyed by a small minority of people. How times have changed! Since the 1980s, yogurt’s popularity has increased five times over, and today it’s one of the most popular foods in the world. According to...
How safe is the air we breathe? It’s an important question these days, but not a new one. In fact, technology was being applied to the problem almost a century ago. That technology was--and still is--Ultra Violet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI). Invented in 1937, UVGI...
If you’re in the food industry, you know that regulatory bodies worldwide are pushing for more stringent safety measures in food production. The need for innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions has never been more pressing. The food industry needs answers,...
It’s hard to imagine a more important area of food safety than baby formulas. Bad enough when a foodborne illness hurts anyone, but when infants are affected, the repercussions are so much worse. In 2008, contamination of infant formula affected 300,000 babies in...
Despite the best efforts of industry and government, foodborne illnesses continue to be a public safety issue, as this long list of outbreaks in the U.S. shows. The 2020 E. coli outbreak, to take one example, was linked to leafy greens that sickened people across 29...
Pulsed Light is one of the most versatile technologies in the world. Harnessing the power of the sun, it’s being used to sanitize surfaces, enhance nutritional value in foods, improve food shelf life, and cure special materials, among other things. What could possibly...