Development of an automated, mobile pasteurizer for food products in global communities.

Consumption of milk and dairy products is one of the best, and most available, sources of nutrition in the world. Unfortunately, one of the most common sources of foodborne illness is contaminated milk. This is especially true in third world countries where sanitation practices are primitive and refrigeration on-farm or during transport to milk processing plants is very unreliable due to instability of available electrical power. Thus, a system that would allow milk to be pasteurized and chilled on farm or at local community collection points prior to transport would have a tremendous impact on dairy product quality and food safety and would support the USDA SBIR initiative of lowering the risk of foodborne illness and securing a major source of the global food supply. Based on the existence of commercially available solar powered water pasteurizers and new developments in food grade sensors, we believe that development of a portable, low cost, automated pasteurizer for enhancing food safety in global communities is an achievable goal. It is anticipated that a portable, low cost device may be manufactured that effectively pasteurizes and chills milk for several days prior to delivery to the processing plant. It is anticipated that the proposed device may be configured to automatically clean itself using a control unit that can be managed remotely. It is also anticipated that device sensors can reliably transmit process data to a remote location such that the device may be monitored and controlled remotely. Successful development of such a system will have dramatic impact on food safety of agricultural products in remote locations with limited technology.