1. A Biosensor for Food Freshness
ECI Biotech ChickenSense™ Biosensors will provide a scientific
basis for determining the freshness of poultry or meat.
How often do consumers go to the grocery store and buy a chicken breast –
only to bring it home and find that it already smells?
The rancid odor associated with spoilage is caused by the presence of
thousands – even millions – of bacteria. A simple test, however, could
detect the existence of multifold bacteria. Such a test would provide a real
measure of freshness, and possibly even help prevent food illness.
Meaningless “Sell-by” Dates
Sell-by dates marked on meat and poultry packages are arbitrary time
stamps. Although many grocers and food producers do microbiological
research to determine how long their product stays fresh under normal
conditions, the sell-by dates are affixed when the meat or chicken gets
packaged at the plant or in the supermarket. If the integrity of the hotdog
package is damaged during shipping, or in stocking the grocery shelf, then
the product can spoil earlier than the pre-determined date. Improper
handling can also lead to contamination. Hence a mouthwatering filet
mignon steak or plump chicken breast may look fresh, but the most
appealing food product in the grocery store may not be what a consumer
wants to cook and eat.
The company ECI Biotech recently conducted a spoilage test of 100
store-bought chickens with premium chicken breasts fresh from a
production plant (kindly provided by MBA Poultry, Inc.) that
demonstrated that consumers can’t place much trust in sell-by dates.
Although the chicken breasts carried statements on their packages,
indicating that meat was fresh for two weeks from the purchase date,
laboratory tests proved otherwise for a significant portion. ECI Biotech
found that five percent of the chickens in the sample had between 1,000
and 1 million bacteria present.

2. Good meat fresh from a butcher’s shop should have no more than 100 to
200 bacteria present on it. Air chilled chicken breasts from MBA Poultry
have even less. By the time a consumer’s nose detects a rotten smell,
spoilage bacteria have already grown from a few early inhabitants on a
chicken breast to a full blown contamination of a million or more colony
forming units of bacteria. But modern science could provide a test to
determine whether poultry or meat has begun to spoil before the onslaught
of disgusting and offensive odors.
BioSensors
To understand how such a test might be devised, it’s important to review
what science knows about the process of spoilage. Present almost
everywhere, bacteria play a role in the natural process of decay. These
simple organisms too want to feast on the meat or poultry just like a
human consumer.
To “digest” cell tissue, bacteria secrete protease, an enzyme that allows it to
convert protein into amino acids for the purpose of metabolism. The foul
orders – what makes kids say yuck – stem from the release of byproducts
that occur when protease initiates the chemical breakdown of tissue.
Why couldn’t a simple test diagnose the abundance of protease? Such a test
would have to involve interaction with protease with another substance to
enable marking.
Human-manufactured peptides – small chains of proteins – provide the
basis for such a tag. Since protease will interact with any protein, it
becomes possible to design a special one for testing purposes. For instance,
a peptide could be constructed containing food dye in its chemical makeup.
When protease then cuts a custom-made peptide, the breaking of the
amino-acid chain could release food dye as a by-product of the reaction.
As the food dye collects on a surface, it would provide a simple marker
visible to the consumer’s eye, which would signal a high degree of spoilage
bacteria. The sensor would display a colored dot to indicate a high degree
of bacterial contamination. Think of this diagnostic tool as a “litmus test”
for freshness. ECI has developed a freshness sensor, Chickensense™ that
will be first direct measure of freshness for the sell by date.
Advancements in applied science make it possible to manufacture such
peptide sensors at an economical cost. For instance, a peptide-dye
conjugate sandwiched between two membranes could be placed in diapers
on which chicken, pork or meat rest in packages. The biosensor would offer
consumers an easy-to-comprehend visual signal for freshness. Moreover,
these types of bio-sensors could be laser jet-printed onto poultry or meat
diapers.
Consumer Ignorance
Why hasn’t the meat or poultry industry looked into the adoption of such
technology if it’s available for pennies? No industry wants to take on
additional costs without sufficient consumer demand.
Yet the public is not yet aware that the field of biotechnology has
developed simple, yet low-cost biosensors for detection of spoilage. Once

3. they become aware that such diagnostic tools do exist, then consumers
may begin demanding that meat and poultry industry supply “yuck
sensors” on product shipped to supermarkets. After all, such sensors would
ensure that the public spend their food dollars wisely to obtain the freshest
product possible at the market.
As Americans and other people around the world worry about the food
chain, biosensors offer the ability to allay consumer concerns about
product quality and freshness.
For more information on the development of these low-cost, diagnostic
sensors to detect microbes and other possible consumer applications, visit
ECI Biotech’s website: ecibiotech.com