Next generation sensors for food quality monitoring

The project GRACED aims to develop a technical solution for detecting contaminants at all stages of the value chain of the fruits and vegetables (F&V) industry. The link between food quality monitoring and AMO's core expertise is evident in the full tile of the project: “Ultra-compact, low-cost plasmo-photonic bimodal multiplexing sensor platforms as part of a holistic solution for food quality monitoring.“

One sensor for monitoring the entire value chain

“The goal of the project is to exploit recent advances in the field of plasmo-photonic to develop a sensor capable of detecting multiple contaminants, quickly and in a cost-efficient way”, explains Dr. Anna Lena Giesecke, head of the Nanophotonic Group at AMO GmbH and partner of GRACED. “An important point is that the sensor has to be portable, so that it can be employed at any stage of the value-chain of fruits and vegetables –  from the production sites, to our tables.”  

Nanophotonics, Internet-of-Things concepts and sophisticated data analytics

The project is directly linked to the objectives of the European Farm-to-Fork strategy and responds to the need of minimizing the risk of microbiological and chemical contamination in food industry. Nowadays, inspections on fruits and vegetables are mostly carried out at the production site or at the food-processing facility, by testing random batches. The time and cost per analysis lead to reduced inspections and imply that these cannot take place in all parts of the value chain – especially not in supermarkets or restaurants. GRACED aims to fill this gap by developing a modular solution for the early detection of contaminations in fruits & vegetables, based on advanced nanophotonics techniques, Internet-of-Things concepts, and sophisticated data analytics. 

Plasmo-photonic interferometer as starting point 

AMO plays a central role in the project, leading the technical development of the plasmo-photonic sensor itself. “From the sensor point of view, we will exploit the fact that contaminants can cause a change of the refractive index in a plasmonic waveguide if this is coated with the appropriate receptor, and that even tiny changes be detected using a plasmo-photonic interferometer”, explains Giesecke. “With some of our partners, we have already demonstrated an ultra-sensitive and extremely compact plasmo-photonic interferometer within the project PLASMOfab, which represents the starting point for the sensors envisioned by GRACED”. 

The complete system will be tested in different production and distribution systems, including

• a conventional farming system in open-air farms in Italy, and the following food-processing steps for preparing cooked meals and frozen vegetable packages;
• a novel, urban-farming ecosystem in France, producing fruits and vegetables used in in-situ restaurants;
• a short value-chain agro-ecology model in France, with direct distribution from farmers to consumers & restaurants;
• a semi-automatic farm in Hungary, producing mushrooms distributed to supermarkets & wholesalers.

Contact: Dr. Federica Haupt, AMO GmbH
haupt@amo.de