About the research
You have no doubt come across it when opening your fridge: a packet of cheese full of mould or a pot of sauce with a suspiciously bulging lid. The culprits? Bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Food producers try to prevent this type of spoilage as much as possible. They do this by ensuring that a product contains as few micro-organisms as possible when it leaves the factory. Thijs Vackier (KU Leuven) is helping them do this. He is working on new cleaning agents that can better break down the biofilms, protective mantles around micro-organisms, in food processing equipment.
Sustainability