Food contamination testing equipment has become portable and could find a role in the farmyard of the future.
Idaho Technology of Salt Lake City, Utah, has taken polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, technology from the lab to the field and has made it affordable and easy to use for government health regulators and research veterinarians.
“Tests for food and livestock pathogens that can take days are being accomplished in 30 minutes,” said Michael Perdue of the Animal Waste Pathogen Laboratory with the United States Department of Agriculture.
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“With food safety and animal health, time is critical.”
Todd Ritter of Idaho Technology said his company has been focusing its research on military applications and bioterrorism threats, but recent work with the USDA is yielding new products that will identify food safety and animal disease pathogens.
While the market for antiterrorism tools is strong, the company is expanding it focus to food testing.
“Food is a good, long-term business to be in and food safety is an excellent market for our products. Our motto is ‘we make cool stuff,’ ” said Ritter.
The company is working on a test for foot-and-mouth disease.
“We have nine tests now including brucellosis (Brucella species), E. coli O157:H7, salmonella, campylobacter, lysteria, hepatitis viruses (A and E), of course anthrax. There are a lot of possibilities for food safety programs,” he said.
The 12-year-old, privately held company was built by post graduate students inspired by the theories of an Idaho university professor who told his students that machines should be developed for biological testing that use organic compounds as their basis.
PCR can be used to increase or identify the tiniest bit of genetic material in a sample.
Samples are heated to a point where they can be separated into their genetic components. They are then introduced to some known but incomplete pieces of a genetic jigsaw puzzle called reagents. If they fit, they are positively identified as being present in the sample material.
To take PCR technology on the road, the company devised a 16-kilogram machine called RAPID, or Ruggedized Advanced Pathogen Identification Device.
The machine, which fits in a backpack, can identify the specific pathogens in samples of blood, manure, water, soil, milk and air.
“We are able to test air for the presence of citrus cancer, a serious problem for farmers in the southern States,” said Ritter.
Due to the high volume of water needed by dairy cows, bovine enteric viruses present in those supplies can be a serious problem. The new on-farm system can test for the virus in 30 minutes instead of the standard two days at a stationary lab.
A 2.8 kg, handheld version of the unit, called RAZOR, is now being tested.
At $80,000, the machines are not going to show up in farmyards en masse, but Canadian and U.S. food inspection services say they will take advantage of the technology for tracing food-borne pathogens and testing for animal disease in the next few years.
“We have some ministry of defence funding to look at the portable PCR technology,” said Paul Kitching, who heads the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s foot-and-mouth surveillance program.
“It could have a place in our regional labs … it could give us the ability to speed the processes and do investigative work. Canada is a big country and it makes sense to handle some testing locally.”
Idaho Technology also produces testing equipment for the lab and sells freeze dried PCR reagents that can be used by other brands of testing equipment.
“Freeze drying stabilizes our reagents, meaning we don’t have liquids that must kept refrigerated. They can be used on the battlefield or a farmyard where fridges aren’t that handy,” said Ritter.
