The transformation of food safety labs thanks to new technology

The arrival of smartphones, drones and mobile measuring equipment will significantly change the working methods within and outside a laboratory in the field of food safety. This is what Arjen Gerssen says, who works at Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) as sub-programme leader for food contaminants.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

Arjan Gerssen spoke during the event organized by FHI Laboratory Technology Food & Beverage online knowledge week. He outlined a future in which more and more measurements will be carried out on location. In his view, farmers and inspectors will check the quality of food on site. A cloud service can then quickly indicate whether food is safe based on the measurements provided. Consumers will also do these types of measurements themselves, Gerssen thinks.

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In the current working method, a lot of time is wasted on checking samples in a lab environment that have nothing wrong with them. In what Gerssen qualifies as a paradigm shift, in the new situation only a small number of suspicious samples are found on site, after which this much smaller group of suspicious food samples are validated in a lab. “We are becoming more data-driven. And more datasets are becoming available. Lab employees are increasingly becoming data managers and data technicians,” he said during his presentation.

The role of the WFSR in these developments is broad. For example, the research institute collaborates with manufacturers of, for example, mass spectrometers. WFSR also helps with the development and testing of new software.

Benefits of drones

The arrival of advanced drones makes precision agriculture possible, as well as carrying out remote inspections. For example, drones can be used to detect toxic substances in the smoke fumes during a major fire. Drones with sensors can also be used to analyze manure vapors to ensure that they are not drug waste. Thanks to the drones, measurements not only become faster, the work also becomes safer.

Smartphones make it possible to quickly analyze samples using the device's camera. Together with colleagues from Sweden, WFSR developed a module full of sensors to detect allergenic substances within half a minute, among other things. For example, such spectrometers in combination with machine learning algorithms can be used to check samples for the presence of cocaine.

During his webinar, Gerssen also talked about the development of portable lab equipment. This involves many challenges, such as making portable spectrometers lighter. Nevertheless, WFSR is working hard on the development of such devices. With this equipment, for example, counterfeit pepper, just like fraudulent olive oil, a lucrative trade, can be discovered in the food chain.

Lab market is changing

There are still plenty of challenges for the future, such as arranging good quality controls and accreditations. There are also still some technical hurdles to overcome, such as increasing the sensitivity of portable spectrometers. Yet Gerssen concludes that the market share of traditional food safety labs will probably have shrunk by 2030, while the market at the bottom is actually growing strongly due to the developments outlined. The market share for highly specialized labs also appears to be growing.