Bacteria beam to spot contaminated meat

29/09/05 Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new technology which can spot contaminated meat in seconds.

The technology, which uses infrared beams to spot harmful bacteria, has the potential to revolutionize the food processing industry and prevent thousands of cases of food poisoning.

It is estimated that more than 5.5 million people in the UK, 1 in 10, suffer from food poisoning each year. Bacteria, which goes undetected in factory processed meats, such as chicken or beef, is one of the main causes.

Professor Roy Goodacre, Dr David Ellis and a team of researchers within the School of Chemistry, have developed the technique using infrared light which successfully spots chicken and beef contaminated with dangerous bacteria, leading to the hope that it will increase the safety of processed foods across the industry.

The scientists have already shown that the technique works in both chicken and beef - which are believed to be two of the most difficult meats to check for safety. They are processed in different ways, and are typically contaminated by different types of bacteria. The method could therefore easily be applied to milk, ice-cream, cheese and other dairy produce, fruit juices and other foods.

The new technique uses infrared spectroscopy on light reflected from the surface of the food to produce biochemical 'fingerprints' of any contaminating micro-organisms, such as bacteria, and rapidly estimate their numbers.