The expected impacts of this project, categorized as scientific/technological and social/economic are the following:
Scientific/Technological
• Extend the use of non-thermal technologies for decontamination of emerging pathogens, thus fostering their adoption in the food sector;
• Optimize technological treatments for decontamination of food products from emerging pathogens, increasing their safety but minimizing side effects on quality and nutritional characteristics;
• Identify potential improvements for the tested technologies and provide environmental criteria when selecting preservation processing for foods.
Social/Economic
• New findings on the behaviour of emerging parasites in food and novel methods for decontamination will positively fuel the national/international discussion to update the current legislation through a co-creation approach between the National authorities, Academia, and Industry;
• Extension of the shelf-life of the food products helping to reduce food waste at different level of the food chain;
• Reduce incidence of foodborne diseases due to safer food products with positive impacts on health system;
• Involvement and training of young researchers (specifically funded through research fellowships) for carrying out technological trials, analytical tests, evaluation of energetic and economical assessment. This trained staff will gain the attention of food companies and plant manufacturers for their possible employment and will give the sector new expertise and competitiveness;
• Increase the competitiveness of food companies involved in the food chain and the values of their products fostering the confidence of the consumers in the food supply system;
• Fuel and sustain the trust of consumers’ toward emerging technologies as essential tools for tackling the current/emerging challenges that the words is called to face;
• Improvement of the environmental impact of the supply chain by comparing the non-thermal technologies to the existing ones, as an attempt to contribute to the upgrade of the world energy scenario;
• Support the country economy, trade and tourism and contribution to food and nutrition security stimulating sustainable development.