A Smart-Phone Compatible System Detects Bacteria In Food

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When it comes to the human eye-sight and vision, we are extremely limited. Whether you possess Hawk-eye or Eagle-eye, our eyes have a limit to what they can actually visualize. Tiny microbes and organisms would always elude our visionary ability, why? Well, because they are ‘micro’. This is one of the reasons for the invention of the microscope.

Bacteria exist virtually everywhere around us. The air, our skin surface, and every part of our surrounding, and with our naked eye, we can’t see them.

Now, let’s think about our food. If your food were contaminated with bacteria you certainly can’t tell with merely your eye-sight. But what if a technology could help us detect bacteria in our food? What if a smart-phone compatible system could enable us detect and ascertain the nature of bacteria present in our food in roughly two hours?

Well, science and technology always seem to have the answer.

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The Food Bacteria Detector

As recently reported, a technological system which comprises of a simple microscope, a smartphone app and a bacteria-binding chip is about to take the health and food sector by storm.

The bacteria-detecting technology is being created at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. And plans are currently being made to launch the inexpensive device that would be linked to your smartphone in order to alert you of the presence of bacteria in your food.

Dr. Lili He, a food scientist, is currently leading the research, and the team has developed a chip that integrates a 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid (3-MBPA) molecule which is capable of attracting and binding bacteria.

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How it works

To use the system, the chip is dipped into a sample of food or juice, after which it is then extracted and rinsed with a liquid high in pH buffer or hydrogen ion buffer. The buffer solution washes things such as fats, proteins and sugar that are part of the food, while leaving the bacteria present in the food, in place.

After that, the chip is then placed in a portable light microscope, designed to be incorporated with smartphones. Next, an app then counts the bacteria detected on the chip. The app can detect up to 100 bacteria cells for every one milliliter of solution.

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The result from the whole food bacteria detection is gotten in less than two hours. When compared with the standard method of using culture to ascertain the presence of bacteria from food samples, which takes two days; then it is apparent that the food-bacteria detector is quicker.

Even though there are some other bacteria detection methods which are quicker, Dr. Lili He claims that such methods aren’t as reliable and as sensitive as her chip and detector.

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Conclusion

As much as a debate might arise from the supposed efficacy and promptness of this bacteria detecting device; it is evident that the spate of consumption of contaminated food would definitely face reduction, once the device goes mainstream.

The issue of consuming contaminated meals might not be the biggest challenge facing the medical and health industry, but the effects of bacteria in the gut due to consumption of contaminated meals, still remains one the most unpleasant sicknesses that can befall a person.

Our sensitive bowels need to be cared for, and if a device can warn us to avoid certain foods laden with bacteria in order to avoid an illness, then I think that is a big plus for science, medicine and technology.

The expectations are that once the technology is available for commercial retail, it would benefit not only cooks, but would also go ways in assisting aid workers and ad-hoc staff who assess food for bacteria in food and water supplies at disaster sites, and "internally-displaced-persons" (I.D.P.) camps.

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Reference:

• newatlas - food bacteria detector
• unmass.edu - amherst food scientists
• wikipedia.org - pH buffer solution
• centurygadget

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