Innovative Disinfection Method to Prevent Foodborne Illness in Spaceflight

Anticipate Ventures (doing business as "Far UV Technologies") and its partners are proposing a currently unused and only recently available portion of the UltraViolet light spectrum (200-230nm Far UV) willbe much more effective and safer than existing water, wipe, hydrogen peroxide, plasma chamber or conventional UV sanitation alternatives to address the emerging food borne biological threats, while being easier to use, lighter weight and more cost effective to implement while not requiring water and improving efficiency in thefood supply chain by extending food shelf life.Far UV sanitation is deceptively simple, yet it is a profound advance in disinfection that is applicable to any bacteria and/or virus. Far UV does not utilize environmentally challenging chemicals, does not inadvertently create super-bugs as antibiotics have more recently been shown to do and does not require water. Far UV is superior to existing legacy UV sanitation because legacy UV sanitation systems are ineffective at sanitizing objects that are exposed to UV-A (sunlight, fluorescent lights and other light sources) after sanitation and are a safety risk for direct human exposure. This means the legacy UV systems cannot sanitize food that requires post harvest handling in lighted facilities. Far UV is the first UV sanitation and the first to be safe for direct human exposure.This project will demonstrate and validate an innovative new portable pathogen detection and Far UV disinfection system; selected foods will be tested and compared against control specimens to determine product safety and sensory technicians will determine the visual, nutritional and other shelf life impacts of the treatments. Far UV technologies will develop and fabricate fully-functional prototypes that are mature enough to operate and demonstrate in field tests, demonstrating commercial capability and maturity.