Evolutions in analyses for quality control

Any product intended for human consumption must undergo rigorous testing. To guarantee food safety, certainly, but also to prove that the food contains what it should contain and nothing else. Today, most tests are done in the lab, within our own production walls or in collaboration with an external partner in order to make the analysis in sufficient detail. Nevertheless, what can be charted via in-line measurements and analysis in the future is also being investigated.

Sensors harbor enormous potential for the food industry to control both the process and the quality of products. Application areas lie in the detection of pathogens in raw materials, as well as during processing and quality control of the finished product. Until now, sensors were mainly confined to the production line, where they were active in monitoring the environment and checking for the presence of gases. Think of hydrocarbons, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that can be generated during production. These types of sensors provide valuable information about process performance, but little direct data about the quality of the processed product. To shed more light on this, one will have to look toward chemical and biosensors. Options that are still highly dependent on the application and process environment.

Towards real-time analysis

In a typical bioprocess, cells are grown under strictly controlled conditions in fermenters or bioreactors in liquid media. The products of these bioprocesses range from enzymes to biopharmaceuticals or valuable food odors, all of which of course place high demands on product quality and safety. Gas sensors have already proven to be very useful in quantitative and qualitative monitoring of bioprocesses, allowing real-time monitoring of cell status, growth rate and product concentration. Another advantage of this technology is that it can find application to detect contaminations with foreign microorganisms in real-time in a bioreactor tank after only a few hours of processing, which is a significant gain over traditional microbiological methods. Thus, the application of non-invasive, online monitoring technology such as these gas sensors could certainly help improve product quality.

Automation and miniaturization

Two trends will strongly influence applied research in sensor technologies: automation and miniaturization. Two trends that are also closely intertwined. The necessary instrumentation can be implemented in existing process technology so as not to disrupt the ongoing process. Moreover, these systems must be integrated into overall quality assurance and traceability systems. Currently, existing methods cannot yet meet these needs. But in the future, real-time testing with reliable sensor technology will add value for food producers by reducing handling costs and product recalls. As food safety requirements increase, the demand for high-speed sensor technology will only increase.

New opportunities 

After all, the food industry needs to be able to present more and more information about its products than ever before. In order to keep the process perfectly under control and have to process parameters at the production site to get maximum assurance, measurement diagnostic devices will be needed. Devices that can operate directly near the production line, or better yet fully integrated and connected. There will be a market for devices that ...

• Be able to measure a certain range that falls within the regulations
• Can be implemented in existing quality control and data management systems
• Working accurately and reliably for an extended period of time
• Have sufficiently short response times
• are hygienically built
• are easy to operate, maintain, dismantle and assemble and are affordable to food companies