The need for routine, non-destructive chemical screening of agricultural products is increasing due to the health hazards to animals and humans associated with intentional and unintentional contamination of foods. Melamine, an industrial additive used to increase flame retardation in the resin industry, has recently been used to increase the apparent protein content of animal feed, of infant formula, as well as powdered and liquid milk in the dairy industry. Such contaminants, even at regulated levels, pose serious health risks. Chemical imaging technology provides the ability to evaluate large volumes of agricultural products before reaching the consumer. In this presentation, recent advances in chemical imaging technology that exploit Raman, fluorescence and near-infrared (NIR) are presented for the detection of contaminants in agricultural products.

Date Published: 27 April 2009
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7315, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety, 731507 (27 April 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.820283

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7315:
Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety
Moon S. Kim; Shu-I Tu; Kaunglin Chao, Editor(s)