The Professorship's Research

Project start: 01.01.2023
Project end: 30.06.2024

In various areas branches of horticulture and also in the food industry, efficient cleaning and disinfection of shoe and boot soles, both in the entrance area and between different departments, is considered an important hygiene measure. Hygiene sluices are available for this purpose, among others, which consist of a combination of hand disinfection and shoe sole cleaning. So far, there are very few well-founded study results on the effectiveness of such devices. Therefore, the project will determine whether a commercially available hygiene sluice has sufficient cleaning and disinfection performance and which parameters are responsible for this. In this context, a standardised test procedure for the validation of hygiene sluices will first be developed. Since previously used inoculation methods did not correspond to the usual soiling in horticultural work areas, a standard soiling is being developed that takes these conditions into account and with which specific practical conditions can be simulated by simple variation. This standard soiling will first be tested for its suitability for the contamination of shoe soles. Furthermore, tests will be carried out to optimise the hygiene sluice. The results will be used to develop recommendations as a standard method for manufacturers and users of hygiene sluices, which can contribute significantly to minimising the risk of transmission of relevant microorganisms in the production and processing of vegetables.

Project start: 01.05.2021
Project end: 30.04.2024
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

The ErdHase collaborative project ensures a better quality of life and safety for peanut and hazelnut allergy patients. It combines clinical, analytical and food production know-how. The aim of this project is to provide analytical tools for the management of food allergens along the food production value chain. Those analytical methods will be linked to the immune repertoire of a patient cohort for food allergen detection.

Project start: 01.09.2016
Project end: 31.12.2018
Sponsor: Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts

Nuts can cause severe allergic reactions. To protect allergy sufferers, they must be labelled on food packaging. Antibody-based tests are the most commonly used analytical methods to detect nuts in food. They are mainly used by the food industry and commercial or public laboratories. Nuts are often difficult to detect in processed foods that have been baked or roasted, for example. The aim of this project is to improve the detection of nuts in food, especially hazelnut and almond. This will lead to increased safety for allergy sufferers when consuming these foods. The partners involved, R-Biopharm, Geisenheim University of Applied Sciences and Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Idstein, bring extensive experience in allergen analytics and food processing to bring an improved method for detecting nuts to the market.