Food borne disease outbreaks occur around the world, even in countries with strict regulations and attention to safety. Inevitably someone forgets to wash the lettuce or does it with impure water, a shipment becomes essentially poisonous, and there’s no practical way of detecting whether bacteria are breeding all over the surface. Now researchers at Alabama’s Auburn University are reporting the development of a portable device that has demonstrated the ability to detect Salmonella‘s presence on fresh food.
The device consists of a sensor and a special coil that detects how the sensor resonates in front of it when a sample is presented. Because of its tiny size and simple construction, if validated for commercial use, this technology can find use in a variety of clinical situations where verification of a clean environment can help prevent infections.
Study in Journal of Applied Physics: Design of a surface-scanning coil detector for direct bacteria detection on food surfaces using a magnetoelastic biosensor
Statement from the American Institute of Physics: A new approach to detecting food contamination enables real-time testing of food and processing plant equipment…