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Sensor May Speed E. Coli Detection

September 25, 2006

• California Burger Patties Recalled • Final Verdict on 2006 Spinach E. Coli Outbreak: Unknown • Consumer Groups Want FDA to Regulate Sanitation on Farms • Irradiation Could Reduce Food-Borne Illness • E. Coli In Spinach Linked To Manure • FBI Probes E. coli Outbreak • Food Safety Expert Sees More Trouble Ahead • Sensor May Speed E. Coli Detection • Two More Spinach Deaths Reported • Tainted Spinach Toll Rises • Second Company Named in Contaminated Spinach Outbreak • California Spinach Blamed for E. coli Outbreak • E. coli Outbreak in Bagged Spinach --- • Consumer complaints about Contaminated Spinach

The Food and Drug Administration took days to track down the source of the E. coli outbreak connected with fresh spinach. An engineer at Drexel University said he is optimizing a sensor that can enable growers to do the job themselves in a few minutes.

Dr. Raj Mutharasan, a professor of chemical engineering, has developed an "intelligent" sensor technology that he says is precise, accurate and cheap.

Costing just a few dollars, the sensor can provide a result within 10 minutes and can detect pathogens or bacteria, like E. coli, with a sensitivity of four cells per milliliter.

The standard detection process of E. coli bacteria in food processing takes about 24 hours. A sample is taken to a lab and placed on a nutrient agar. If E. coli is present, they will multiply on the auger and researchers can visibly identify them.

Mutharasan said his sensor can be placed into a palm-sized device that can be placed in the hands of food inspectors and growers, and is even cheap enough to one day be used at home.

The sensor uses E. coli antibodies to detect the bacteria in much the way that our bodies work. These antibodies are affixed to a narrow sliver of glass. Attached to the other end of the glass is a ceramic layer that generates voltage in response to applied mechanical stress.

A voltage is applied to the ceramic layer, making it expand and contract, causing the glass sliver to vibrate. The sensor detects changes in the glass sliver's resonate frequency (the point where vibration is the greatest) and uses this to determine both the presence and concentration of E. coli bacteria.

Mutharasan said he is working with a company to commercialize the device and expects it to be in the hands of food safety experts soon. Other applications for the sensor technology include detecting prostate cancer without a biopsy and detecting Alzheimer's disease, he said.

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