# Applications of Pulsed Light Decontamination Technology in Food Processing: An Overview
## 9 Conclusions  
Pulsed light (PL) technology is a green, novel non-thermal technology that has huge potential to be employed for decontaminating food- and food-contact surfaces as well as packaging materials. Ever since the application of light pulses for food preservation, several terms have emerged, like pulsed UV light, high intensity broad spectrum pulsed light, pulsed white light etc., which are all the same as PL. PL has a great future in employment in the food industry for enhancement of keeping quality of food products by inactivating microorganisms such as _L. monocytogenes_ within a few seconds.  
However, PL cannot be used to sterilize food products due to their non-uniform surfaces and opacity, except to reduce their microbial load. Nevertheless, PL is one such technology, which has the capacity to tackle the undesirable effects of conventional thermal processing. PL is an apt method of decontamination for the surface of foods, packaging materials, equipment, and clear liquids. However, a challenge lies in the processing of particulate foods like grains, spices, and products having highly uneven surface due to the'shadowing' of microorganisms. PL also has higher investment costs and has shown the possible heating of products. Therefore, PL based systems with a proper optimized system for minimizing PL induced sensory changes with minor modifications to allow for the processing of particulate foods as well as installed cooling jackets to minimize the heating will open new avenues for the process. Future research should be directed towards understanding the inactivation mechanisms by the PL of different bacterial strains, states, and morphologies, like Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and different growth phases. Also, further attempts at the commercialization of the process have to be made in the future. Lastly, the enhancement of nutritional attributes due to PL light presents the opportunity of using PL as a bio-fortification technique, which might be of immediate demand in the natural health and nutraceutical sectors.  
Conceptualization, A.W., A.S. and A.P.S.; Data Curation, R.M., X.M. and A.W.; Formal analysis, R.M. and X.M.; Funding acquisition, A.P.S.; Investigation, R.M., A.S. and A.P.S.; Methodology, R.M., A.W. and A.P.S.; Project administration, A.S.; Supervision, A.P.S.; Writing--Original draft, R.M. and X.M.; Writing--Review & editing, A.W. and A.P.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2018-04735) and Collaborative Research and Development Grant (CRDPJ 522364-17) in collaboration with Solaris Disinfection Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada.  
Authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for financial support.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the result.