Development of rapid testing technology to increase food security

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