Advanced technologies help detect dirty food

Thanks to specialized equipment, laboratories in the UK can detect milk containing hormones or high arsenic rice.

Currently, the global food retail market has a total value of up to 4,000 billion USD and is still growing rapidly. Some forecasts indicate that by 2020, this market will reach more than USD 8,000 billion. Due to its large scale, the food supply chain is becoming more complex and criminal organizations are cheating billions of dollars by mixing cheap and dangerous chemicals into food during production, Harmful to consumers' health.

The technician is reviewing one of the food samples before conducting the analysis.(Photo: Chris Baraniuk).

According to the BBC, a team of experts at Queen's University's Global Food Safety Institute in Belfast, UK, headed by Professor Chris Elliott, is studying new technologies to detect real fraud in production. Products.

To perform the analysis, the center's laboratory is equipped with many specialized devices with the ability to detect toxins and chemicals in food. For example, to test samples of oregano leaves, they used a handheld device to conduct spectral analysis.

The lab is not only filled with expensive equipment but also includes many measuring tools and small containers.(Photo: Chris Baraniuk).

"This method is quite simple. We will project light into the food. After that, the energy from the light will vibrate the food molecules and we will obtain an oscillating model. Each molecule "It will vibrate in a slightly different way, so when measuring all vibrations, you'll find their tracks. The method is very accurate , " Professor Elliott said. The team hopes in the future this tool can be used by food inspectors to check on-site food.

Other tests are conducted to determine whether the food contains toxins. For example, using biological sensors containing antibodies. The proteins in the animal's immune system will bind to certain pathogens or toxins to neutralize them. If the link occurs in one of the antibodies, there is a certain toxin in the food.

Nearly every food has the potential to be contaminated with toxic chemicals. Industrial dyes are sometimes added to spices to create more attractive colors.

By using smoke analysis results, the team can differentiate fish species.(Photo: Chris Baraniuk).

"A common way to cheat is to add preservatives to milk to prevent metamorphosis of milk during transport. One of the often added preservatives is hormones," Professor Elliott said. "The hormone is a poison that can be deadly."

Even if the manufacturer does not knowingly mix poison into the product, food is still at risk of containing toxins. Depending on the location and planting of rice, rice may contain high levels of arsenic, a heavy metal that increases the risk of cancer.

A technique used to detect heavy metals such as lead or cadmium is projecting fluorescent images with X-rays . When exposed to specimens, X-rays cause electrons to separate from atoms. At the same time, energy photons are also released. By measuring photon energy, experts can determine which elements are present in the sample.

Laboratory equipment shows what is hidden behind food.(Photo: Chris Baraniuk).

The Global Food Safety Institute's lab not only analyzes the dangerous substances and compounds found in food but also determines if the packaged product is really the same as the advertisement on the packaging.

A tool to help identify the type of product, such as different types of fish, is the "i-knife" , developed by Zoltan Takats, a surgeon at Imperial College. , London, England.

The knife attaches a laser lamp to vaporize the molecules. Smoke will be sucked into a spectrophotometer for analysis. Electrons fired at the smoke that disintegrated molecules, allowing computers to arrange atoms based on their static electricity. With only small slices, Elliott's team could obtain the results of each specimen's smoke analysis and show the differences between fish species.