Sensors for food safety assessment

This solution was shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM , 14 May 2021

Print date: 17 October 2023 05:25

Description of the innovative solution

Information/communication Sensors Food safety Perishable food Postharvest technology Supply-chain management Retail promotion Tuft's Innovation Lab

As the world continues to globalize, agricultural production continues to ramp up, and the effects of climate change continue to be felt more and more, there is an increasing need for food screening technologies that can detect pathogens, spoilage microorganisms, microbial communities, toxins, and non-microbial parameters such as water activity, pH, metabolic by-products. Sensors for food safety assessment are currently undergoing testing in laboratory settings with the hopes of creating a reliable technology to detect the presence of these harmful substances in our food. This technology has the potential to be portable. Meaning, it could help government agencies to quickly assess the safety of the food in a manufacturing plant or elsewhere. These sensors are still in the infancy of development. Despite technologies being able to detect many harmful substances in the lab, it is extremely hard to then apply this technology to food, because of its great complexity. So far chemical detectors have shown more promising results than biological detectors. As the technology continues to develop, high specificity will likely be achieved by these sensors which will greatly reduce the amount of false positives. When there are less false alarm about harmful substances in the food supply, less food is wasted and food security is increased. Though sensors for food safety are still in the infancy stages of production and research, if they are successfully created they have the potential to improve the safety, quality and security of foods.

Supply chain segment

Handling, storage and transport/distribution

Maturity level

Prototype

Criteria

Food quality Food safety

SDG target

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Context

Urban Peri-urban Rural Marine/Coastal

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Portable Nanoparticle-Based Sensors for Food Safety Assessment
Scientific paper
This article provides a review of the nanotechnology used in assessing food safety and its possible benefits.
Shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM
An emerging fluorescent sensing tool to aid food safety and quality control
Scientific paper
Fluorescent sensing is a promising and powerful screening tool for sensing hazardous substances in food and thus plays a crucial role in promoting food safety assurance. However, traditional fluorphores generally suffer the problem of aggregation-caused quenching effect, which limit their application in food quality and safety inspection. In this regard, luminogens with aggregation-induced emission property (AIEgens) showed large potential in food analysis since they effectively surmount the ACQ effect with much better detection sensitivity, accuracy, and robustness.
Shared by IFSS Portal Research Team

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