The new technology has the potential to replace the traditional “best before” date on food and drinks alike with a definitive indication that it’s time to chuck that roast or pour out that milk.
Is that meat still good? Are you sure? McMaster researchers have developed a test to bring certainty to the delicate but critical question of whether meat and other foods are safe to eat or need to be thrown out.
Mechanical and chemical engineers at McMaster, working closely with biochemists from across campus, have collaborated to develop a transparent test patch, printed with harmless molecules, that can signal contamination as it happens. The patch can be incorporated directly into food packaging, where it can monitor the contents for harmful pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella.
The new technology, described today in the research journal ACS Nano, has the potential to replace the traditional “best before” date on food and drinks alike with a definitive indication that it’s time to chuck that roast or pour out that milk.
“In the future, if you go to a store and you want to be sure the meat you’re buying is safe at any point before you use it, you’ll have a much more reliable way than the expiration date,” says lead author Hanie Yousefi, a graduate student and research assistant in McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering.
If a pathogen is present in the food or drink inside the package, it would trigger a signal in the packaging that could be read by a smartphone or other simple device. The test itself does not affect the contents of the package.
According to the World Health Organization, foodborne pathogens result in approximately 600 million illnesses and 420,000 deaths per year. About 30 per cent of those cases involve children five years old and younger.
The researchers are naming the new material “Sentinel Wrap” in tribute to the McMaster-based Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network, an interdisciplinary research network that worked on paper-based detection systems. That network’s research ultimately gave rise to the new food-testing technology.
Chemical engineer Carlos Filipe and mechanical-biomedical engineer Tohid Didar, collaborated closely on the new detection project.
The signaling technology for the food test was developed in the McMaster labs of biochemist Yingfu Li.
“He created the key, and we have built a lock and a door to go with it,” says Filipe, who is Chair of McMaster’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
Mass producing such a patch would be fairly cheap and simple, the researchers say, as the DNA molecules that detect food pathogens can be printed onto the test material.
“A food manufacturer could easily incorporate this into its production process,” says Didar, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and member of the McMaster Institute for Infectious Disease Research.
Getting the invention to market would need a commercial partner and regulatory approvals, the researchers say. They point out that the same technology could also be used in other applications, such as bandages to indicate if wounds are infected, or for wrapping surgical instruments to assure they are sterile.
Learn more: This tiny patch will tell you if your food has gone bad
The Latest on: Food spoilage detection
via Google News
The Latest on: Food spoilage detection
- Quantum Dots Market Revenue, Growth Analysis, Opportunities, Business Strategies, Key Players, Demand and Impact of COVIDon May 18, 2022 at 7:24 pm
Overview The Quantum Dots Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 26.45% during the forecast period. As per the ...
- Safe-to-eat fish is still some distance awayon May 7, 2022 at 8:08 am
A neat spread of marine fish without ice may not be a rare sight at the markets in hilly areas and rural interiors. But that means the quintessential red flag for any fisher as it is highly improbable ...
- Five Cold-Chain Logistics Challenges, and How to Solve Themon May 1, 2022 at 5:01 pm
Physical damage can occur due to packaging integrity or mishandling, contamination, spoilage (where cargo is not ordered in a first-in-first-out approach), and temperature abuse (when food needed to .
- Nanotubes sniff out rotting fruit, your dorm room might be nexton April 30, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Now MIT scientists, with US Army funding, have discovered a way to give these nanotubes the canine-like sense of smell needed to stop produce spoilage ... and allowing the detection of ethylene ...
- Squadle Sense™ Remote Temperature Monitoring System Streamlines Food Safety Complianceon April 27, 2022 at 6:57 am
What’s more, the smart sensors prevent major inventory loss from food spoilage by flagging any temperature ... Predictive Notification – System algorithms detect temperature changes before ...
- Industry Insights from NIZO: Reducing spore-related spoilage risk in UHT drinks containing cocoa powderon April 20, 2022 at 4:59 pm
While bacteria-related spoilage for these products is rare, reducing food waste is a concern for every player in ... and identifying bacterial spores in cocoa powders. Reliable detection of the number ...
- NIT Andhra Pradesh Researchers Show How Nanoparticles Can Be Used In Food Packaging Materialson December 7, 2021 at 2:42 am
Additionally, nanomaterials in the form of sensors can be employed to maintain the temperature, detect pathogens ... of packing material to prevent food spoilage and contamination,” Dr Rao ...
- Electronic noses and disease diagnosticson September 20, 2020 at 6:20 pm
This approach was used in the development of a prototype sampling system for raw food materials before real-time (10 minutes) processing to detect mould spoilage 25. The opportunity now exists to ...
- Food safetyon August 18, 2020 at 12:07 pm
This in turn requires that the necessary analytical capacity exists to detect and monitor food contaminants ... it is effective at controlling spoilage, eliminating food-borne pathogens such as ...
via Bing News