Development of rapid testing technology to increase food security

在新冠肺炎大流行期间，由于消费者增加新鲜水果和蔬菜的摄入量，对新鲜农产品的需求增加，收割和加工农作物的劳动力短缺导致粮食供应减少。因此，在发生危机时，加快向超市运送食物变得至关重要，以避免食物短缺。农产品的食品安全检测是强制性的，但目前基于细菌培养的检测非常耗时(2-5天)，所有检测的产品必须在等待检测结果的同时储存，然后才能投放到超市。这种延迟不仅减缓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，因此需要额外的能源，这显著增加了种植者的成本和碳足迹。Moldotech是一家专门从事检测开发的创新公司，该公司开发了一种用于产品和加工设施中病原体识别的快速测试，该测试在时间框架(~5小时)内得出结果，从而克服了延长农产品储存的需要，从而降低了成本，延长了保质期，并节省了能源使用。我们已开发出包括大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌在内的常见食品病原体的检测方法，该方法旨在供非专业工作人员在农场现场使用。在这个项目中，我们将与粮食种植者合作，在他们的农场现场验证我们的新检测技术。通过快速提供检测结果，农产品将不需要长时间储存，一批又一批的农作物可以立即送到超市。该项目将使我们能够进一步开发和改进我们的技术，以生产一种可广泛用于粮食种植者的原型套件。在农作物中，细菌经常生长在保护层或可以附着在叶子上的生物膜中。食品加工为生物膜的形成提供了理想的条件，它们可能含有病原体，如大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌。如果食物接触到这些生物膜，可能会发生污染，消费者可能会因食用受污染的食物而生病。生物膜可以诱导出用目前的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，验证这样的生物膜不会干扰我们的检测，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能够在现场快速测试食品生产，并允许种植者快速向超市发放食品批次。这不仅将节省种植者的时间、金钱和能源消耗，还将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物链的弹性

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