In today’s convenience driven lifestyle, ready-to-eat (RTE) food products are becoming an inevitable need. Food items such as prepared salads, cooked meats and dairy products like milk, cheese and spreads that do not require further cooking can be classed as RTE foods.

Most RTE foods are convenient to the consumer as they can be bought and stored until required. The production and storage of RTE foods is crucial to consumer safety.

In order to ensure safety, the European Union has introduced rigorous legislation to minimise risk to consumers. Contamination of RTE foods with micro-organisms, and their toxins, pose a significant risk to consumer health. Although meticulous testing protocols are imposed prior to distribution of RTE food products, pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli can still cause food borne infectious diseases.

A key source of disease outbreaks is the mishandling of dairy products. The EU dairy industry processes 152 million tonnes of raw milk annually for consumption or further processing into food products, feed and pharmaceuticals. The raw milk required to meet this demand is provided by 1.6 million dairy farmers across Europe. Current protocols in the food industry for microbial testing can take up to two days for bacterial analysis, and seven to eight days for fungal analysis. Faster molecular techniques remain costly for small businesses that do not run their own research and development department.

Hyperspectral image analysis is an emerging technology which may provide a contactless and non-invasive alternative for early detection of microbial contamination. This is potentially beneficial for the detection of slow growing fungi in dairy products. A hyperspectral camera can be used to scan food items, and acquire images composed of different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum called spectral bands. Through automated image processing and analysis techniques, this spectral information can serve as a form of fingerprint to characterise a given food product. Any deviation from this fingerprint would be identified as contamination. This technology can also be employed to identify environmental sources of contamination from different surfaces.

This analysis approach using hyperspectral imaging would increase production efficiency and reduce food inspection costs having a positive economic impact on the production process of dairy products. Additionally, this technology would ensure increased food safety by identifying contaminated batches early in the production line. In turn, this prevents their distribution to consumers and acting as a further positive aide to the economic impact of RTE foods.

The Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics and the Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Malta are currently involved in a collaborative project with Farm Fresh Ltd, whereby they are investigating the use of hyperspectral imaging for food inspection. Dr Sholeem Griffin, Dr Owen Falzon, Prof. Vasilis Valdramidis and Prof. Kenneth Camilleri are conducting the research work at the University of Malta.

This team forms part of the ‘Food Inspection using Hyperspectral Imaging’ (FIHI) project financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology through the Fusion: R&I technology Development Programme.

Dr Sholeem Griffin is a researcher in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Malta. Her work focuses specifically on the development of a hyperspectral imaging system to detect low-level contamination of food products. In her spare time, she likes to statistically analyse random datasets along with a cup of tea.

Did you know?

• The dairy industry represents approximately 15 per cent of the annual turnover of the food and drinks industry, and employs around 13 per cent of the total workforce in Europe.

• Bacteria can be found in different shapes and sizes, rod-shaped, spiral shaped and sphere-shaped.

• Antony van Leeuwenhoek is regarded as the father of microbiology and discovered ‘protozoa’ – the single-celled organisms which he called ‘animalcules’.

• The human body is made of around 37.2 trillion cells and is host to around 100 trillion microbial cells, which compose the human microbiota.

• Foodborne pathogens result in around 600 million illnesses per year.

For more trivia, see: www.um.edu.mt/think

Sound bites

• A study used organic or conventional fresh produce and dairy products bought from local grocery stores in San Fernando Valley in California to detect the antibiotic-resistant bacteria commonly present in ready-to-eat foods. The study was conducted by a team of undergraduate student researchers at California State University-Northridge California. Eight different antibiotics were used to quantify the total bacteria resistant to these antibiotics. While dairy products were found to have very low levels of these antibiotic-resistant bacteria, yogurt samples had the highest amount among the dairy products. The antibiotic resistant bacteria most prevalent in dairy products is usually used to treat numerous bacterial infections. Another finding was that on average both organic and conventional produce had 10,000 times more antibiotic-resistant bacteria than dairy products. This study showed that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are naturally present in ready-to-eat foods and can be potential sources of human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170605121333.htm

• Usually, we check the bottom of the packaged food product to see whether the meat or milk is safe to eat. However, a more reliable way of knowing has been created than the conventional expiration date. Engineers at McMaster University are working closely with biochemists and have developed a transparent test patch that can detect contamination as it is happening. If a pathogen is in the product, a signal is sent and can be read using a smartphone or another simple device. This new material that goes by the name ‘Sentinel Wrap’ is tribute to the McMaster-based Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network. This is an interdisciplinary research network that gave rise to this new food-testing technology. The same technology can also be used in other applications, such as making sure that surgical instruments are sterile.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180406085500.htm

For more soundbites listen to Radio Mocha on Radju Malta every Monday at 7pm on Radju Malta and Thursday at 4pm on Radju Malta 2 https://www.fb.com/RadioMochaMalta/

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