Laboratory testing of agricultural produce in the wake
of the food scares of the 1990s has made the food on European dinner tables
safer than ever before. But, say a team of researchers, an even better job
could be done by taking the laboratory to the farm, slaughter house or processing
plant.
The GoodFood project aims to do just that by using micro and nanotechnology
to develop portable devices to detect toxins, pathogens and chemicals in
foodstuffs on the spot. Food samples would no longer have to be sent to a
laboratory for tests – a comparatively lengthy and costly procedure – but
could be analysed for safety and quality at the farm, during transport or
storage, in a processing or packaging centre or even in a supermarket.
“The aim is to achieve full safety and quality assurance along the complete food
chain,” explains Carles Cané, the coordinator of the IST programme-funded
project at the National Microelectronics Centre in Spain.
Sensors used for screening
The tiny biomechanical and microelectronic sensors can be used to screen for
virtually any pathogen or toxin in any produce, although the project partners
are focusing their research on quality and safety analysis for dairy goods, fruit
and wine.
For the dairy sector they are developing a device based on a fluorescent optical
biosensor that measures the reaction of a probe coated with antibodies when it
comes into contact with antibiotics present in milk or other dairy products.
Though the use of antibiotics as growth enhancers is prohibited in dairy cattle
in Europe, farmers are permitted to employ them to treat ailments affecting individual
animals. These can enter the milk and could prove harmful to consumers - especially
if they end up in baby food - by creating cumulative resistance to antibiotic
treatments.
Checking milk for antibiotic residues is typically carried out with a non-reusable
litmus paper testing kit. An electronic device of the kind being developed by
GoodFood would make the tests faster, cheaper and more accurate.
The same would be true, the project partners say, if a microelectronic device
is used to detect pathogens such as salmonella and listeria bacteria in milk,
cheese and other dairy products. The partners are therefore also developing a
device using DNA biochips to detect pathogens - a technique that could also be
applied to determine the presence of different kinds of harmful bacteria in meat
or fish, or fungi affecting fruit. Other sensors based on an immunodiagnostic
microarray will be developed to identify pesticides on fruit and vegetables.
To date detecting the presence of bacteria or pesticides in different foodstuffs
has only been possible by sending samples, usually selected at random, to a laboratory
and waiting hours or even days for the results. A portable device would not only
accelerate the testing procedure, but would allow more tests to be carried out
on more produce samples, increasing the overall safety of the food.
Improving quality as well as safety
Improving food safety is not the only goal of the project, however, which is
also planning to use micro- and nano-sensors to increase food quality, with evident
benefits not just for consumers but also farmers and processors.
Sensors that measure the quantity of oxygen and ethylene – a gas produced by
fruit as it ripens - in fridges where unripe fruit is stored for months until
it is ready to go on sale would give suppliers greater control over how well
the produce is being maintained. Employed on the farm, sensors to measure environmental
and climatic conditions would give farmers important information about their
crops, especially when the sensors are connected wirelessly to an analysis system.
This and other systems developed by the project are being tested over the course
of this year at a vineyard near Florence in Italy where the grapes due to be
harvested in September will have grown under the watchful eye of the GoodFood
sensors.
“Wine making is a precise art and a difference of a few days in when the grapes
are picked can make a huge difference in the quality of the wine,” the coordinator
notes.
With the GoodFood system, the Florence vineyard owner can look forward to 2006
being an excellent vintage. In the future other farmers, processors and consumers
will also benefit from better and safer food, with Cané expecting the
project's research to lead to commercial systems, initially for testing and monitoring
more expensive foodstuffs such as wine and baby food and eventually for other
produce.
Contact:
Carles Cané
Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica
Campus UAB
Bellaterra
Spain
Tel: +34-935947700
Mobile: +34 647 418 493
Email: carles.cane@cnm.es
Source: Based on information from GoodFood
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