Using space know-how to ‘sniff’ out salad quality

Scientists in the UK are working to develop new technology which will be able to ‘smell’ when fruit or vegetables are going off – potentially saving tonnes of waste.

According to the UK waste advisory body WRAP, 1.2 million tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables are needlessly wasted each year.

A UK-based research team is hoping to develop a quick and cost-effective quality assessment system for the food and drink industry, by utilising a technique commonly used in space science. The system will reduce waste and allow food suppliers to be able to pinpoint when the produce is at its peak condition, and therefore has the most nutritional value to consumers.

They have already identified the unique set of molecular markers given off by rocket leaves before they are about to go off, but wanted to see if they could apply this to other produce.

The team includes Dr Hilary Rogers and Dr Carsten Müller of Cardiff University, Dr Geraint Morgan of The Open University and Dr Simon Sheridan of Applied Science & Technology Solutions Ltd.

Dr Rogers said: “We are hoping that by creating a technique that can assess the quality of the produce we will be able to reduce waste by allowing the industry to make better informed assessments of shelf-life. The benefit of using this technology is that it is does not need complex sample preparation.”

“Our biggest challenge now is to take this complex technology and apply it to a cost-effective platform so that it can be used at different points in the supply chain, from production through to retail.”

The research project has been funded by the STFC Food Network+, which brings together researchers from STFC and different disciplines in the agri-food sector with the aim of solving some of the world’s greatest food sustainability challenges.

Dr Morgan and Dr Sheridan have previously developed a shoe-box sized version of a GC-MS for planetary exploration, namely the Ptolemy instrument on the Rosetta mission. But the team now hope to translate the lessons learnt to develop a bespoke, affordable as well as portable platform.

“Early results show that it is certainly possible” said Dr Morgan, “We have identified a significantly lower cost, alternative detector solution that can accurately quantify the marker compounds, at even lower levels than a mass spectrometer. This allows a very simple and rapid sampling and analysis process that could be used by anyone in the value chain. We have developed and evaluated a working prototype and now require the funding to conduct the production design to develop the instrument that can be sold to the various stakeholders in the supply chain and to identify the markers that will enable it to be platform technology suitable for a range of produce.”

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