Hamilton, Ontario—Researchers have developed a test to reveal bacterial contamination in dairy products well before the products are consumed.
Researchers at McMaster University, with support provided by Toyota Tsusho Canada, Inc., have proten a method that they said will allow producers, packagers and retailers to detect bacterial contamination in milk products just by reading a signal from a test printed inside every container.
The technology can be adapted to detect the most common food pathogens and is also expected to be effective for use with other foods and beverages.
The test in its current form works by isolating even trace amounts of infectious bacteria in milk products.
“Milk is a very rich environment whose complex biology can mask the presence of pathogens, making it hard to find them,” said Tohid Didar, a Canada research chair in the McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering and an author of the research paper, which has been published in the nanotechnology journal ACS Nano. “In terms of the technical challenge, it’s similar to blood.”
The test works by printing the inner surface of a container with a tasteless, food-safe patch that repels everything but the target organisms, using a biosensor that triggers a change in the patch when such organisms are detected.
The researchers are working with Toyota Tsusho Canada, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation in Japan, to develop and market a working prototype.
“We chose milk as a demonstration of the technology because it is so challenging. Knowing the technology works in such a complex solution means it can work with other forms of packaged food products, such as canned soup or tuna,” said co-author Carlos Filipe, McMaster’s chair of chemical engineering.
Reducing illness and food waste aligns well with Toyota Tsusho Canada’s values, according to Grant Town, Toyota Tsusho Canada vice president.
“Whenever we work to generate new business, it must provide a benefit to society,” Town said. “Reducing food waste will benefit everyone, and Toyota Tsusho Canada sees this as a great opportunity.”
The authors of this research seeded whole milk with E. coli to prove the technology can detect even trace amounts of the pathogen.
Having been proven effective, the detection technology can readily be applied to other foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria and Clostridium, the researchers said. Yingfu Li, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences and a co-author of the paper, had previously identified various biosensors that can detect specific pathogens.
A test patch covering multiple pathogens could be printed on or otherwise incorporated into many forms of packages, including cartons, plastic tubs, milk bags and bottles so that it can be read, either visually or with a scanner, without opening the package, the researchers noted.
The near-term goal is to make the technology available to manufacturers, distributors and retailers, but if it is widely adopted, consumers could one day use handheld scanners to check foods immediately before consumption, the researchers said.
This research is part of an ongoing, broader effort to establish McMaster as a center for the development of real-time sensors, pathogen-repellent materials and other products that improve food safety.
