Agri-food Production and Storage: Portable, Rapid and Simple Diagnostics for Pathogens

Crops that are grown for food are often vulnerable to diseases that cause the quality of the food to deteriorate over time. One important food crop is potatoes and these are particularly susceptible to bacteria and fungi that cause the potatoes to break down during storage or after they have been packed and dispatched to supermarkets. There are a number of organisms that can cause this breakdown and tests for these can be carried out individually using current technology. However, these tests look for one type of organism at a time and are often time consuming and expensive. We are developing a simple to use, fast and economical test that can detect the most important organisms in one sample at the same time in a few minutes. This means that the results are available quickly so prompt action can be taken as the potatoes enter storage or when they are washed prior to packing rather than waiting for lab results - by which time it is often too late to do anything about the spread to other batches. As well as testing the potatoes directly, another important area where this test will help is in monitoring the water that is used to wash the crops before packing. The amounts of water used are large and for economic and environmental reasons it makes sense to recycle this water. Companies have methods to recycle water and our rapid monitoring method will support the recycling process by providing a quick, easy and cheap tool to test when batches of wash water need to be replaced. Overall, the developments will result in less waste and potatoes that that can be stored for longer. Once successfully demonstrated for use with potatoes the technology will be developed for use in other food products.