A Microfabricated Array-Based Sensor for Seafood Freshness

The food industry, especially the meat and fish industry, is very concerned about the freshness of their products. Quality control at every step in the processing/distribution chain is essential to guarantee a tasty, wholesome, and most of all, safe food supply to the public. In general, available technologies for the determination of seafood freshness are time consuming and expensive, require complicated equipment and destructive sampling, and are difficult to perform outside the laboratory. Lynntechs array-based chemical sensor, i.e. "electronic nose", offers a low-cost solution to monitor food spoilage. The array-based sensor uses conductive polymer elements, which can be tailored to specific groups of target compounds, e.g. volatile bacterial metabolites given off by food during the spoilage process. The array produces an electronic signal pattern, or "fingerprint". The sensor will incorporate integrated circuits to control sampling and signal detection and analysis, including pattern recognition. Lynntech proposes to develop a user-friendly versatile system that is quick to respond, requires no consumables, and is portable. During the Phase I project, the feasibility of the sensor design at the bench scale will be demonstrated. During the Phase II project, a prototype sensor system will be developed and field-tested.