Food inspection moves toward automation
11/01/2001
Hank Hogan
SEBASTIAN, FL—When it comes to fecal contamination on cattle carcasses, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandates that any is too much.
Fecal matter can harbor the potentially harmful bacteria E. coli, and so the USDA standard is zero. However, spotting the dark contaminant quickly and accurately on a nine-foot-long, white slab of beef isn't easy, especially since the carcass could be speckled with flecks of blood or oil.
Today, that detection is the work of inspectors. In the future, technology in the process of commercialization may yield an automated meat inspection system. "We detect fecal concentrations as low as ten micromolar, which is basically invisible," says Al Gapsch, vice president of research and development at eMerge Interactive Inc.
According to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA, there have been 15 federally tracked recalls of beef products this year through September 2001. That number doesn't include state administered recalls.
Not all federally reported incidents have been for possible E. coli contamination, and not all of the E. coli-driven recalls were for large amounts. On the other hand, some recalls fit both criteria. For instance, a voluntary August 29 recall by IBP (Dakota City, NE) involved half a megaton of ground beef possibly contaminated by E. coli.
"We encourage any technological developments that can improve food safety," says FSIS press officer Beth Gaston.
Jane Robbens, national program leader for food safety at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, thinks an automated approach to meat inspection of some type is needed. "It's important if we're going to further lower the incidence of pathogens, because a machine, when it's working right, won't get tired," she says.
A technology-based company targeting the $40-billion U.S. beef production industry, eMerge is in the final stages of commercializing its inspection product. The company is the exclusive licensee of a system first developed by Iowa State University and the USDA in the 1990s. In the original system, a green laser illuminated a small, one-millimeter area on a carcass. When the beam struck fecal contaminants, they fluoresced in the red part of the spectrum. That glow could be spotted for real-time detection.
While this worked, the laser was expensive, the area illuminated small, and the fluorescence efficiency low. So, eMerge transformed the system. The light source was changed to a less expensive mercury vapor lamp. Filters were added so that only light near the edge of the visible range, or about 400 nanometers, struck the carcass. Shifting the wavelength down made automated detection easier, as did the use of filters before the detector.
The system has been through trials conducted at various universities. These have shown the setup can provide real-time images of carcasses on monitors, with fecal contaminants highlighted. On the other hand, a meat packing plant requires rapid-fire operation in less than optimum conditions. What's more, eMerge's current proof of concept unit is made of off-the-shelf equipment. Thus, notes Gapsch, the product requires more development to meet requirements from customers and Underwriters Laboratories (UL, Northbrook, IL).
"In order to survive in a food processing environment, it has to comply with the new UL 2128 regulations, which talk about food handling equipment, which basically says it's got to be all stainless steel, no glass," he explains.
The final commercial unit will consist of three imaging modules. By taking this approach, eMerge can produce units sized for cattle and swine inspection. Full-blown manufacturing trials will begin in the first quarter of 2002, with product roll out taking place some time after that.