Development of rapid testing technology to increase food security

在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，由于消费者增加了新鲜水果和蔬菜的摄入量，对新鲜农产品的需求增加，收获和加工作物的劳动力短缺导致粮食供应减少。因此，在危机时刻，加快向超市运送食品的速度对于避免食品短缺至关重要。对农产品进行食品安全检测是强制性的，但目前基于细菌培养的检测耗时（2-5天），所有接受检测的产品必须在等待检测结果的同时储存起来，然后才能进入超市。这种延迟不仅减慢了向零售商供应食品的速度，缩短了保质期，而且储存农产品需要仓库空间、额外的包装和冷却，从而需要额外的能源，这大大增加了种植者的成本和碳足迹。Molendotech是一家专门从事分析开发的创新公司，已经开发出一种快速检测产品和加工设施中的病原体的方法，可以在时间框架（~5小时）内给出结果，从而克服了延长产品储存的需要，从而降低了成本，延长了保质期并节省了能源使用。我们已经开发了包括大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌在内的常见食物病原体的检测方法，它的设计目的是供非专业工作人员在农场现场使用。在这个项目中，我们将与食品种植者合作，在他们的农场现场验证我们的新型检测技术。通过快速提供测试结果，不需要长时间储存农产品，批量的农作物可以毫不拖延地送到超市。这个项目将使我们能够进一步发展和改进我们的技术，生产出一套可以被粮食种植者广泛使用的原型工具包。在作物中，细菌通常生长在可以附着在叶子上的保护层或生物膜中。食品加工为生物膜的形成提供了理想的条件，它们可能含有大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌等病原体。如果食物接触到这些生物膜，就可能发生污染，消费者可能因食用受污染的食物而患病。生物膜可以诱导出现有方法难以培养和检测的形式。在这个项目中，我们将与南安普顿大学的生物膜专家合作，以验证这些生物膜不会干扰我们的检测，并且我们的检测技术可以检测细菌生物膜，因为这对食品市场很重要。在这个项目结束时，我们将了解我们的技术如何在现场快速测试食品生产，并允许种植者快速将食品批次投放到超市。这不仅可以节省种植者的时间、金钱和能源使用，还可以缓解食品供应链中的一个关键瓶颈，从而有助于建立英国食品链的弹性

During the COVID-19 pandemic shortage of labour to harvest and process crops led to a decrease in food supply when demand was increased for fresh produce as consumers increased their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. Speeding up food delivery to supermarkets thus becomes critical at times of crisis to avoid food shortages. Food safety testing of produce is mandatory but current bacterial culture-based testing is time-consuming (2-5 days) and all tested products must be stored while waiting for test results before being released to supermarkets. This delay not only slows supply of food to retailers and shortens shelf life, but storing produce requires warehouse space, additional packaging and cooling and thus additional energy, which add significantly to the growers costs and the carbon footprint.Molendotech, an innovation company that specialises in assay development, has developed a fast test for pathogen identification in products and processing facilities that gives results within a time frame (~5 hours) that overcomes the need for extended storage of produce thus reducing costs, increasing shelf life and saving energy use. We have developed assays for common food pathogens including E.coli and Salmonella and it is designed to be used on site at farms by non-specialist staff. In this project, we will work with food growers to validate our novel assay technology on site at their farms. By providing test results quickly, there will be no need for prolonged storage of produce and batches of crops can be sent to supermarkets without delay. This project will allow us to further develop and improve our technology to produce a prototype kit that can be used widely by food growers.In crops, bacteria often grow in protective layers or biofilms that can adhere to leaves. Food processing offers ideal conditions for biofilm formation and they may contain pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella. If food comes into contact with these biofilms, contamination may occur and consumers may become ill by eating contaminated food. Biofilms can induce forms that are difficult to culture and detect by current methods. In this project we will work with biofilm experts at Southampton university to validate that such biofilms do not interfere with our assay and that our assay technology can detect bacterial biofilms as this is important for the food market.At the end of this project we shall understand how our technology can test food produce quickly on site and allow growers to release food batches quickly to supermarkets. This will not only save time, money and energy use by the growers but alleviate a critical choke point in the food supply chain and thereby help build resilience into the UK food chain