The electronic pasteurization device is essentially a high-voltage TV tube that shoots an electron beam that destroys harmful microbes in ground meat. A new kind of pasteurization has been developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Iowa State University and Natick Army Laboratory. It destroys bacteria without significantly changing product composition, flavor or nutritional value.
Cold pasteurization uses electron beam technology.
Nan Unklesbay, MU food science professor, has been the principal food scientist for the development of electron beam, or E-beam, technology since 1995. That is when electrical engineering professor Randy Curry came to MU, bringing with him an accelerator. The high-powered accelerator is a type of cathode ray tube, similar to that found in a conventional television set. It can survive temperatures and acidic conditions that others cannot. Because of its resilience, it is considered to be an indicator organism.