Industrial device for the continuous UV-C treatment of fruit and vegetables: simulation-aided design and model validation
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Natalya Lysova
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Michele Bocelli
Abstract
The irradiation of foods with UV-C light is a non-thermal and non-chemical treatment that allows for achieving several benefits, from surface decontamination to hormetic effects on biological matrices. Nowadays, even if its effects have been extensively proven and discussed, UV-C radiation is not widespread on an industrial level for the treatment of solid and liquid foods, mainly due to technical limitations and the non-uniformity of legislation for different products and among different countries. In this study, numerical simulation was adopted as a tool for the design and optimization of a device for the UV-C treatment of fruits and vegetables. After validating the modelling approach, the radiation treatment was evaluated for different product configurations. The proposed approach aims to facilitate the implementation and the scale-up of the UV-C treatment in the food industry, as it allows for assessing its effects under different operating conditions, prior to the physical prototyping stages.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: Conceptualization: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Methodology: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Software: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Validation: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Formal analysis and investigation: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Writing - original draft preparation: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova; Writing - review and editing: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova, Michele Bocelli; Visualization: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova, Michele Bocelli; Funding ac-quisition: not applicable; Resources: Federico Solari, Natalya Lysova, Michele Bocelli, Roberto Montanari, Andrea Volpi; Supervision: Natalya Lysova, Federico Solari, Andrea Volpi, Roberto Montanari.
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Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: Not applicable.
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