Manufacturing firms operating in the food industry may soon have access to a revolutionary new type of packaging to put in their loading hoppers.
The American Chemical Society journal Langmuir describes the development of a substance called "killer paper", which is used to package food and help preserve it.
Scientists Aharon Gedanken and his colleagues at Bar-Ilan University in Israel have created the paper, which uses a coating of silver nanoparticles.
These are known to be powerful antibacterial agents, fighting the bacteria in food and preventing them from spoiling from the moment in leaves the conveyors.
One experiment proved that the paper could kill all traces of two food poisoning bacteria, E. coli and S. aureus, in just three hours.
Mr Gedanken is now working on a mass-production paper that can be used by manufacturing firms across the world to keep foods fresh.
This news follows the announcement that scientists at the University of Strathclyde have developed a new "intelligent plastic" that can indicate when stored food has spoiled.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the food industry includes; feeders – metering screw feeders – weighing systems
