Aidan Dobson, Claire Underwood,Holly Hubbard, Sophia Stribling

Expolore Vision Project

Present Technology:
Research on irradiating food started back during the turn of the 19th century.
U.S. and British scientists found that radiation food with ionizing rays could kill
bacteria and by 1905, patents began to be issued. By 1947, military scientists found
that by irradiating meat and other food with high energy radiation, they could be
sterilized which gave the food a longer shelf life out in the field. This prospect
was highly attractive to the military and experimentation on fish, dairy products,
vegetables, and meats began in the 1950s. After eight years of testing, Congress
gave the FDA control over the food irradiation process under the 1958 Food
additives Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA then
concluded that food irradiation was not only safe, but effective for wheat, potatoes,
pork, poultry, fruits and vegetables, and red meat. Soon after this, the United
Nations recognized the process of food irradiation and assembled the Joint Expert
Committee on Food Irradiation. The committee met for the first time in 1964 and
in 1980, they concluded that irradiation of foods up the dose of 10 kiloGrays
introduces no special nutritional or microbiological problems. Nineteen years
later, continued experiments by the World Health Organization determined that the
energy dosage limitations came not from a safety concern, but from the food no
longer becoming palatable. As of now, the process of food irradiation has been
used only for military supplies and also the food for astronauts, but the PooIrradiator hopes to change that.
Future Technology:
Microbes can grow on crops that have been irrigated with water that has
been previously contaminated by animal manure or human sewage. When manure
is added to soil, it can contaminate crops with pathogens. These pathogens are
formed in the stomachs of sheep, cows and deer, and from their, they are
transferred into the soil. Once in the soil, they can either spread to plants, or they
can taint water that is used for irrigation or to cleanse produce. Depending on the
severity of the bacteria in the pathogens, the results of food contamination varies.
Some more extreme viruses such as Salmonella or E. Coli cause many deaths in

the United States annually. Our goal is to protect peoples bodies from the harmful
bacteria that is found in unsanitized foods. We plan to do so with the help of our
new technology, the Poo-Irradiator. With this highly developed piece of machinery,
we will prevent illness and death, saving millions of innocent lives every year. Our
technology will terminate leftover bacteria found on crops through electric shock
and UV radiation. In 20 years, our technology will be on every farm in the United
States, with hopes of reaching out to other continents in a short period of time. It
will be a mandatory step used by farmers in the food cleansing process. The UV
light will be more thorough than pesticides, and will abolish any bacteria leftover
in the crops leaving them one hundred percent sanitary. This will prevent foods
from becoming contaminated and will help to keep humans everywhere, healthy
and free of harmful bacteria. So the next time anyone enjoys a meal, they wont
have to worry about any viruses attacking their immune system.
Breakthroughs:
A breakthrough required to be able to create this technology is being able to
use the technology we and using that creating a machine large enough for farms to
use. Currently, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a disinfection method.
It works by using short-wavelength ultraviolet light to kill, sometimes just
inactivate, microorganisms. The killing of the microorganism works by destroying
nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA. this then leaves them unable to perform
vital cellular functions. UVGI is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air,
and water purification. The application of UVGI to disinfection has been an
accepted practice since the mid-20th century. It has been used primarily in medical
sanitation and sterile work facilities. Increasingly it has been employed to sterilize
drinking and waste water as the holding facilities are enclosed. It can be circulated
to ensure a higher exposure to the UV. Recently UVGI has been found renewed
application in air purifiers. The effectiveness of germicidal UV depends on how
long a microorganism is exposed to UV, the intensity and wavelength of the UV
radiation, and a couple other things. In many systems, redundancy in exposing
microorganisms to UV is achieved by circulating the air or water repeatedly. This
ensures multiple passes so that the UV is effective against the highest number of
microorganisms and will irradiate resistant microorganisms more than once to
break them down properly.

Design Process:
48 million humans die a year from foodborne illnesses, so we need to create
a more effective system of dealing with the harmful bacteria in food. The PooIrradiator works to irradiate harmful bacteria from food. Through electric shock
and UV rays, the harmful bacteria will be eliminated from our crops. This helps
prevent many foodborne illnesses, invasive pests, and it will allow food to be
preserved for a longer amount of time. Electric shock through UV rays kills
bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, which are present in dairy, greens, and proteins most
commonly. Protozoa are like bacteria, but bigger. They are single celled organisms
with animal-like characteristics. If ingested in large quantities, they can cause food
poisoning, acute pain, and diarrhea. By eliminating most, if not all, of these
harmful bacteria, humans will be at a lesser risk for food poisoning. The PooIrradiator therefore zaps the bacteria away with UV rays, making our food safer to
eat. The Poo-Irradiator will look like a giant flashlight with a conveyer belt
underneath. The giant flashlight looking item will be a powerful UV light that
shocks harmful bacteria out of crops such as potatoes, greens, fruits, wheat, meat
and many others.We decided to use ultraviolet light because it is the cleanest way
to kill the bacteria we need to kill. We thought about using a spray to kill bacteria,
but some types of pest sprays are known to infect the foods with other bacteria. We
also decided to irradiate the harvested foods instead of the seeds because the foods
can acquire a lot of new bacteria while growing. For example, a certain type of
fertilizer or pest protection might go into the roots of the plant and into the crop
itself. Irradiating the crops after they have gone through this process will help to
fight those harmful bacteria.
Consequences:
Overall, this product hopes to decrease deaths and diagnosis of food borneillnesses. Through our research, we have proven that there is a possibility of it
working, which will mean less deaths and happier people. However, some things
might go wrong.First, we could have an equipment malfunction or the PooIrradiator could work in a different way we thought. If the Poo-Irradiator does not
end up killing the bacteria we wanted it to kill, we would spend a lot of money on
nothing. Another consequence of using UV light to kill bacteria is to create our
machine it would cost a lot of money. The amount of UV rays we need to harness

per crop will also add the expense to the actual machinery itself. Another issue we
foresee is the fact that the light bulbs last 17,000 hours so we need to monitor when
they go out and create a situation when they burn out it is at the same time. This
creates more jobs, therefore, more people that need to be paid by the owner.