Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #244319
Title: Optical sensing technologies for rapid food safety and quality inspection

Author
item Kim, Moon
item Chao, Kuanglin - Kevin Chao
item Chan, Diane
item JUN, WON
item LEFCOURT, ALAN
item YANG, CHUN CHIEH

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/4/2010
Publication Date: 10/4/2010
Citation: Kim, M.S., Chao, K., Chan, D.E., Jun, W., Lefcourt, A.M., Yang, C. 2010. Optical sensing technologies for rapid food safety and quality inspection. [abstract]. 4th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis book of abstracts, p. 182.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Public concerns for food safety and foodborne illness have risen in recent years. There is a need to expand efforts to prevent and mitigate any food contamination that can potentially be harmful to human health. Researchers at the Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, ARS, USDA is one of the leading groups for the development of opto-electronic sensing technologies and methodologies, successfully demonstrating several cutting-edge systems for detection and inspection for food quality, safety, and sanitation. The optical sensing technologies include Raman, fluorescence, and visible/near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, and hyperspectral and multispectral imaging. Chemical/biological food properties can often be assessed by spectroscopic methods, while machine vision is already ubiquitous for sorting for physical attributes. New spectral imaging technologies can also deliver high-speed online safety and quality inspection of food and agricultural products on high-throughput processing lines. ARS scientists have developed line-scan hyperspectral imaging methods for high-speed inspection on commercial processing lines, capable of simultaneous multiple inspection algorithms for different safety and quality problems. Adaptable to a broad range of problems and commodities, the line-scan hyperspectral imaging platform will be critically useful for both research and commercial food safety and quality inspection applications. We present recent development and application of the rapid line-scan image-based online safety inspection for apples and chicken carcasses and portable fluorescence imaging techniques for sanitation inspection of food processing surfaces.