915 Labs Information

Available exclusively through 915 Labs, MATS is a solution to one of the most pressing challenges facing our industry today: meeting the growing consumer demand for high quality, natural and additive-free packaged foods. MATS — or Microwave Assisted Thermal Sterilization — is a modern, fast, and effective way of sterilizing food that vastly improves the quality, taste, and nutritional value of shelf-stable foods. This breakthrough technology enables food manufacturers to deliver a wide variety of high quality, nutritious and clean-label packaged foods with mass-market distribution, pricing and convenience. MATS natural food processing and packaging will allow food companies to transform the ‘center of the store’ by cleaning up the labels of existing products and launching new natural food products. How MATS Works In conventional thermal processing, in order to effectively eliminate food pathogens and spoilage microorganisms, packaged foods are placed in huge pressure cookers at high temperatures for up to an hour. To mask the damage caused by this prolonged exposure to high heat, salt, flavor, texture enhancers and color enhancers and other unnatural ingredients must be added. MATS accomplishes the same level of safe food sterilization in just minutes by simultaneously immersing packaged food in pressurized hot water and heating it with microwave energy at a frequency of 915 megahertz. This patented microwave system heats food much more rapidly, consistently, and uniformly than home microwave ovens. As a result, MATS natural food processing preserves the nutrients, color, texture, and flavor of foods — while providing a shelf life equivalent to conventionally processed foods. 915 Labs manufacturers a full-scale production system, the MATS-150, and a pilot-scale system, the MATS-B, and has partnered with some of the leading packaging suppliers in the world to create an integrated Packaging Solutions Program for the MATS system.