Anacail raises funding for ozone technology

The spin-out from the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy closed the “Series A” equity investment to grow the technology, which could improve food safety and extend shelf life through post-packaging treatment.

It has applications in decontamination across the supply chain in the retail food sector and hospitality and food service sector.

The firm said in trials of some plated microorganisms reductions in contamination of 2-3 logs were seen, using a brief (0.6 second) ozone treatment time.

Equipment can be installed onto a food processing line generating sterilising ozone inside sealed packaging at typical processing line speeds of up to 60 units per minute (for higher line speeds multiple plasma heads can be used in parallel).

Ozone is produced when a localised region of ionised gas (a plasma) is generated in the pack. It diffuses around and where it collides with surfaces it will decompose, oxidising surface contaminants and killing microorganisms. 

Any unreacted ozone will decay back to oxygen over a timescale of minutes to a few hours, depending on pack contents and temperature. 

The investment consortium included investor Sussex Place Ventures, existing investors IP Group and the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) as well as private individuals.