It will detect mould in beer and cereal products, allergens in milk, pesticides in grapes and wine. The tiny add-on device attached to a smartphone, being developed – among others – by Kraków scientists, needs only a few seconds to check if our food and drink is safe.

Currently, the research on dangerous substances is conducted almost exclusively in specialist laboratories. It is also expensive and usually takes days. The FoodSniffer might provide us with an alternative to that: it will quickly analyse food and drink. It is being developed by an international team of scientists, including scholars from the Jagiellonian University and the AGH University of Technology.

The scientists want to test the device on several products and chemicals, such as remains of pesticides in grapes, fungal toxins in beer and cereal, allergens in water and milk. It is designed to detect even minimal amounts of any substances which may be detrimental to our health. The device is not directed towards highly specialised laboratories, but rather for everyday use. Dr Jakub Rysz from the JU Institute of Physics explained that the team aims to create a simple and clear smartphone application to work with the device.

The FoodSniffer is composed of three elements . It's "heart" is a minuscule chip – an optoelectronic integrated circuit coated in special compounds that detect dangerous substances. This chip will be inserted into a slightly larger device which will be then attached to a smartphone. The last element is the application controlling the FoodSniffer.

The project's full name is FOOD Safety at the point of Needvia monolithic spectroscopic chip identIFying harmFul substances in frEsh pRoduce. It's coordinator is one of Greek research centres. Scientists from Germany, Holland, France, Spain and Finland also participate in the project.

(source: PAP - Science in Poland)