Researchers develop 'tricorder'-like detector for food contamination

Soon, people may be able to detect bacteria contamination in food in real time, with as little as just a wave of a handheld device—just like those "tricorders" on Star Trek.

 

Researchers at Auburn University have developed a wireless acoustic wave sensor platform on which the device is based, according to an article posted on Phys.org.

 

"Now, tests can be carried out in agricultural fields or processing plants in real time — enabling both the food and processing plant equipment and all surfaces to be tested for contamination," said Yating Chai, a doctoral student in Auburn University's materials engineering program.

 

With the new biosensing system, a handheld device can be passed over food to check if its surface is contaminated.

 

Chai said present methods require sensors to be placed on a food item like a watermelon, which is then passed through a large coil that reads the sensors.

 

A separate article on CNET said traditional methods may take 48 to 72 hours, where a sample of the food is taken, grown and tested.

 

The researchers detailed their method in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Applied Physics.

 

CNET added the researchers have filed a patent for their biosensing system.

 

Potentials

 

The device and its ability to detect contamination quickly can potentially help prevent foodborne illnesses, particularly in developing nations.

 

In the United States, foodborne illnesses make up to 48 million people, or one in six Americans, ill each year. Of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 may die.

 

Magnetoelastic biosensor

 

The system uses a magnetoelastic biosensor, a low-cost, wireless acoustic wave sensor platform working alongside a surface-scanning coil detector.

 

In the system, the biosensors are coated with a layer of "phage," a virus that naturally recognizes specific pathogenic bacteria.

 

Chai also said the system is unlike traditional technologies where the sensor should be inside a coil to measure the sensor's signals.

 

"The key to our discovery is that measurement of biosensors can now be made 'outside the coil' by using a specially designed microfabricated reading device," he said. — TJD, GMA News