One of the world’s most environmentally sophisticated food-processing laboratories is nearing completion at the University of California, Davis.

The new 4,000-square-foot California Processing Tomato Industry Pilot Plant will handle a broad spectrum of food products, including tomatoes, olives, peaches and prunes in a food-grade environment. It has been created to support teaching, research, outreach and contract work in UC Davis’ Department of Food Science and Technology.

The new pilot plant has been designed and constructed to attain LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and platinum is the council’s highest ranking.)

The new food-processing plant will include two controlled-temperature refrigeration rooms, a controlled-temperature freezer, a dry storage space, classrooms and an analytical quality-control laboratory. It also will house equipment for production of tomato juice; canned, diced tomatoes and peach halves; dehydrated, blanched and frozen vegetables and fruit; and olive oil.

The more than 50-year-old pilot plant that the Department of Food Science and Technology has previously used is currently finishing its processing runs of peeled tomatoes and peaches. Equipment from that plant will begin to be moved to its new home on Nov. 1. The entire move is expected to take approximately two months.

The new processing plant is part of the 11,500-square-foot August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory, which also houses a brewery and dairy-foods processing plant and will provide a venue for innovations in many areas of the rapidly changing food industry, including food safety, fruit and vegetable processing and dairy processing.

Research projects planned for the new pilot plant will examine:

• How new fruit and vegetable breeding lines can be used in processed products;
• How olive oil can be produced in a manner that maximizes quality;
• How to improve the nutritional quality and shelf life of frozen and canned fruits and vegetables;
• How food-processing byproducts can be used to add value to processed foods, particularly in nutritive content; and
• How the formulation and reformulation of foods can be improved to meet higher nutritional standards, such as identifying mixtures of vegetables and fruits that provide the greatest range of beneficial phytochemicals.

“The food-processing industry in California contributed significantly to this facility, in part, because of the need for research-driven innovations that can reduce this industry's use of water and energy, and make beneficial use of byproducts,” said James Seiber, chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology.

Diane Barrett, a Cooperative Extension fruit and vegetable products specialist, said, “We look forward to the opportunities the new facility will provide for our faculty and students to collaborate with industry partners in the search for new and improved processing methods that will retain quality and be efficient and productive.”

The new brewing- and food-processing laboratory that houses the tomato industry pilot plant is located within the campus’s Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. The institute’s existing 129,600-square-foot complex of three academic buildings, which opened in 2008, is home to the Department of Food Science and Technology, and the Department of Viticulture and Enology. (Design and construction of those academic buildings cost $73 million, paid for by a combination of state and private funds.)

Environmental design features

The environmentally friendly features of the new complex that houses the tomato industry pilot plant include onsite solar power generation, made possible by rooftop photovoltaic cells that will provide all of the complex’s power at peak load.

The complex also has a large-capacity system for capturing rainwater and conserving water. The stored rainwater will be used for landscaping and flushing toilets, per LEED specifications. Plans call for eventually operating the facility independent of the campus’s main water line.

Other environmental features include provision for carbon dioxide capture and a goal of a net-zero carbon footprint, maximum use of natural light, use of recycled glass in the flooring, interior paneling recycled from a 1928 wooden aqueduct, and use of lumber that was harvested from sustainably certified forest operations.

Private donations

The new August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory was funded entirely by private donations; no state or federal funds were used in its design or construction.

California tomato processors and growers came together to contribute more than $2.5 million to the pilot plant, recognizing the important role that the Department of Food Science and Technology has played in the industry and the future potential for training students and conducting research at the new plant. The lead gift of $1 million was provided by the Woodland, Calif.-based Morning Star Packing Company.

In all, more than 150 individuals, alumni, corporations and foundations contributed more than $20 million to design, build and equip the high-tech, environmentally friendly complex that houses the brewery, winery and food-processing facility, including a $5 million pledge from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation.

About the Department of Food Science and Technology

The Department of Food Science and Technology represents one of the oldest disciplines at UC Davis, evolving from studies in winemaking and dairy food production at UC Berkeley in the early 1900s. The current department is home to 200 undergraduate students and approximately 50 graduate students. The majority of the graduates from this program are now working in the food industry or related industries in California and elsewhere.

The department has 25 faculty members, who are involved in international collaborations in 20 nations throughout the world. Its historical strengths are in engineering, chemistry and biochemistry, microbiology, food safety, and sensory and consumer sciences.

It is developing new areas of specialty focused on foods for health; food and culture; the relationship between food-borne diseases and the environment; and the processing of food products at the microscopic level, using techniques known as micro-encapsulation and nano-encapsulation.