New Chip To Detect Bacteria Filled Food

A chicken, fillet of beef or juice containing bacteria will in the future have much more difficultly reaching as far as the supermarket or home refrigerator in Danish homes. The Mads Clausen Institute at the Syddansk University in Denmark is developing a chip that can sound an alarm if a food contains bacteria – writes the magazine New Knowledge.

Scientists hope that the chip can in this way put an end to bacteria filled food which is already in production. Today it can take up to several days to get answers from the laboratory for tested food.

“As it is the product itself being controlled, this puts greater requirements on the manufacturers’ ethics. But we have to assume that they have a desire to stop the goods which do not meet the requirements. I believe therefore that our invention is extremely important. Many companies have already shown interest in the product, “says Professor Horst-Günter Rubahn from the University of Syddansk, Denmark.

Cheaper and faster
The new chip when it’s finished, will not only be faster than older methods, but also cheaper and much smaller than the control machines food producers are using today.

The chip called lab-on-chip and will be the size of a matchstick box. It’s linked to the unit that produces the product – for example, a milk tank or a productions machine and via a computer the details of any bacteria in the production can be discovered immediately. Although what the actual bacteria is, the chip still wont be able to detect as yet.

The project involves about 20 researchers from universities in Saraburi, Kiel and Flensburg and a large number of Danish companies – among others Danisco and Danfoss. The prototype should be ready in approximately three years.

Sounds like promising and innovative news that will hopefully spread once the bugs are ironed out.

News Source: TV2 – Danmark
Translation: Lucy Jones

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