Electronic Pasteurization of Meat Patties

Accelerator Technology Corp. proposes to develop a compact, cost-effective elctron-beam disinfestation system for pasteurization of meat patties. The system is designed to be integrated into the production line of a conventional meat patty operation. In such operations, the patties are stamped from sheets of ground meat in rows of 4-5 patties, moving on a conveyor at the rate of ~1 row/second. A typical large-volume operation may support ~8 such conveyors operating in parallel. ATC's e-beam system delivers the required 30 kGy dose to all conveyors from a single electron source, fanning the beam at each conveyor to provide uniform dose to each patty. The beam is chosen to provide a uniform dose through the thickness of the patty while absorbing ~70% of beam energy within the patty. The ATC system has important advantages over conventional irradiation systems: * it is non-nuclear, and does not involve radioisotopes in any way; * the accelerator technology has an energy efficiency of ~70% - ten times greater than conventional linac sources; * the use of direct electrons transfers ~80% of beam energy directly into dose in the patties; * the accelerator is much less expensive than that for conventional 5-10 MeV bean energy; * the unit can be integrated directly with a food processing streaming without the expense and logistic complications of massive shielded enclosure. ATC is collaborating with the Institute for Food Safety at Texas A&M University and is working closely with industrial meat processors to prepare for the first commercial implementation.