Research clubs
A club project is a great way for a specific sector of the food industry to answer a question. A consortium of companies gather together to fund a tightly focused piece of work which will benefit all members, and will remain exclusive to them for an agreed period of time. Club projects can be on any subject for which there is sufficient interest, and we welcome new ideas. Please get in touch with Greg Jones.
Modified Atmosphere Packed Poultry Club
Supply chain shocks are becoming more common, and the food industry is looking to build resilience into the supply chain. The poultry industry is reliant on modified atmosphere packing using carbon dioxide to achieve a good quality product over its shelf life. This project is designed to test alternative packaging gas mixes by replacing and reducing carbon dioxide and measure the effect on shelf life of poultry products. This information will be useful to aid production planning and product date labelling in the event of limitation of carbon dioxide supply.
Status: Open to applications
Contact: Greg Jones
Extending meat shelf-life club
The shelf life of red meat products is often limited by breaching microbiological quality specifications despite the product remaining perfectly edible. This project is designed to test a range of red meat products organoleptically and microbiologically to determine if the microbiological quality specification is too conservative compared to the sensory shelf life. If this is shown to be the case, this project will provide valuable evidence on which to base a change in specification.
New project to potentially extend meat shelf-life and reduce food waste
Status: Ongoing: Nov 2021 - Nov 2022
Contact: Greg Jones
Use-by labelling of milk club
The vast majority of milk in the UK is pasteurised and sold in a resealable container. The current labelling norm is to print a 'Use-by' date (UBD) on the container to indicate when the product is no longer considered safe to consume. Recently, some milk has been produced and sold in the UK with a 'Best before' date (BBD) on the container as an indicator of when quality can no longer be guaranteed. This project aims to gather data to support further decisions on the use of BBD over UBD on pasteurised fresh milk.
Status: Ongoing: Sep 2022 - May 2023
Contact: Greg Jones
Shelf life data for red meat products club
Following the recent shortage of food grade carbon dioxide, companies packing red meat products in carbon dioxide / oxygen mixes realised that there is little data available on the effects on shelf life of switching to an alternative mixture. This project aims to generate shelf life data for red meat products (primarily dice and mince) packed in a range of low carbon dioxide or replacement carbon dioxide atmospheres. This data will be invaluable should another shortage threaten supply of carbon dioxide for packing red meats.
Status: Ongoing: Sep 2022 - May 2023
Contact: Greg Jones
Foreign bodies club
Foreign bodies in foods can lead to customer complaints and costly recalls. The food industry is always striving to reduce the incidence of foreign bodies in foods. This project will bring together both food producers and equipment suppliers to investigate the potential for novel technologies to be able to detect difficult substances such as thin flexible plastics and un-calcified bone. This project has the potential to improve foreign body detection and reduce the amount of product, time and reputation lost to recalls.