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FOOD GRADE RANGE - Your recipe for success
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your recipe for success
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including NZFSA, NZ AsureQuality and NSF International. CRC Industries follows
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Food Grade Grease
& Bulk Lubricants
FT491
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STAND 3018
Researchers at the NUP/UPNA-Public
University of Navarre and the
Navarre-based company Anteral
SL have designed the novel sensor
system to improve quality control in the food
sector based on terahertz technology – a
band in the electromagnetic spectrum located
between the microwaves and infrared waves.
Spokesman Juan Carlos Iriarte says the
terahertz band is the last unexplored region of
the electromagnetic spectrum, owing to the
difficulty in generating and detecting waves
of this type. “Yet one of the fields in which
terahertz offer huge technological potential is
in the sensing of substances and materials,”
he says. “This is due to the fact that nearly
all the molecules display a characteristic
footprint on this band and this allows them
to be distinguished and identified.” Terahertz
radiation is capable of penetrating a huge
range of objects and substances, and make it
possible to ‘see’ what is inside them, Iriarte
says. “In the same way, the reflection of
terahertz waves varies according to the material
or body they impact upon, and this provides
images depending on the power and phase of
the wave received.” The sensors developed in
this project are used to detect foreign bodies
present in food products such as sliced meat
and vegetables. “Metals, including corrosionresistant
ones, paper, insects, plastics or glass
can be found among these foreign bodies,”
Iriarte says. “Secondly, the sensors can be
used to identify, in real time, microorganisms
belonging to common pathogenic strains
that may be present in perishable foodstuffs,
and to carry out microorganism counts.” The
researchers have designed a device which is a
miniaturised blend of transmitter and receiver,
and which detects the radiation reflected in the
terahertz frequency range caused by a foreign
body or by a chemical product. “In the first
case - that of a foreign body - the radiation is
in proportion to its morphology, and - in the
second - when a chemical product is involved,
its molecular composition is obeyed, allowing
it to be unequivocally identified because each
one has its own spectral radiation footprint,”
Iriarte says. “The spectral signature of objects
and substances is very different between one
case and another, and that is why detection
is much more simple and leads to fewer false
alarms. The system for capturing images in
terahertz constitutes a great advance in this
field, as there are no similar devices devoted to
inspection in the food sector, either nationally
or internationally.” The terahertz -based
technology is already being used in the field
of security to non-intrusively obtain images of
concealed weapons.
WHAT’S
THAT IN
YOUR FOOD
A new type of sensor is being
developed to identify foreign
bodies – such as metals, paper,
insects, plastic or glass – along a
food production line.
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