Food processors are constantly striving to keep the food supply safe by detecting contamination before it reaches consumers. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Athens, Georgia in the US, have been granted a patent on an imaging system they claim could be a more reliable method of scanning food surfaces to detect contaminants.

Using a real-time imaging system in the processing plant, a team of researchers, led by Bob Windham at the ARS Poultry Processing and Meat Quality Research Unit, said they were able to detect faeces and recently ingested materials on animal carcasses with 100 per cent accuracy.

The system uses hyperspectral imaging to scan the surface of a poultry carcass, locating hard-to-detect material such as small particles or those in shadowed areas. This detection system could more reliably detect potential food safety contaminants, reducing processing delays and saving processors money, say the scientists.

While the system has the potential for use in many processing situations for the detection of surface contaminants, it has so far only been tested on poultry. However, because the system is expected to work with other animal carcasses, a broad patent application has been filed covering a wide range of poultry and meat products.

An on-line prototype was used to test the system that operates at 140 birds per minute, approximating the processing speeds used in US poultry plants. The researchers expect the system to work at 180 birds per minute, the maximum European line speed, but have no data at this time to predict its efficacy at that speed.

A co-operative research and development agreement was established with Stork Gamco, Gainesville, Georgia, to develop and test a prototype on-line system.