Food contamination analysis system

System Overview.

Developed as an EU project to identify and source track fungal contamination in the production of fruit juice using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technology. The system is able to identify the strain of mould to species level as well as precisely where and when it entered the juice production line. High throughput robotics are combined with advanced software to provide a powerful tool in the ongoing battle against food contamination. Moulds exist naturally in fruit however some strains can affect the quality and shelf-life of the end product and can also be hazardous to health. This can prove expensive for the producer in terms of rejections, recalls and the associated damage to the brand. Traditional tests for mould include plate counting, DNA and microscopy and are often performed by an external testing laboratory which can be time consuming and costly. Also crucially such tests will only identify the presence of certain moulds and not the source of the contamination.