Inventors have found a way to detect contaminated food inside the fridge by using a laser beam. The device can help prevent food poisoning and other potential food hazards in just a few seconds.
About 50 million people experience food poisoning in the U.S. every year. In addition, more than a million people have suffered from potentially lethal poisoning due to salmonella.
Food poisoning is mainly caused by contaminated food due to bacteria including salmonella, E. coli, or a virus. Campylobacter is known to be present in nearly three-quarters of chicken meat causing more than 280,000 cases of food poisoning in just a year, according to The Sun.
Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to detect bacteria in all food products. Looking for ways to prevent the spread of food bacteria has always been an important objective for the food industry, according to Daily Mail.
Physicists have created a way to detect bacteria in food by use of a laser beam that can be used inside home fridges or in food processing lines without needing to touch actual food. A team under the leadership of Dr. Jonghee Yoon from the Korea Advanced Institutes of Science and Technology in South Korea created an effective way to identify bacteria on foods.
When the laser beam hits any biological tissue such as chicken, meat or fish, the reflected light will exhibit complex patterns known as speckle patterns due to the highly scrambled light paths inside the tissue.
Although speckle patterns are typically complex, they usually remain static. In living microorganism, however, the movements of struggling microorganisms in contaminated food force the speckle patterns to change over time.
The difference in speckle patterns is then detected using a camera that gets 30 scans in a second. Any change in the patterns can conclude whether certain microorganisms are present in the food.
Fortunately, the laser beam does not need any contact with the meat to detect any food contamination. Aside from being able to use the laser from a distance, it can also detect even a transparent plastic packaging.
While the researchers admitted that accuracy could be improved, the laser beam is perhaps the simplest way to accelerate the detection of the majority types of bacteria. This impressive piece of technology could be available within the year.
