College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Making food safer

Device developed by chemistry's Jacob Petrich wins another award.
First it was an R&D 100 Award.

Now a trio of scientists, including Jacob Petrich, professor of chemistry, has been honored by the Agricultural Research Services (ARS).

Petrich and two staff members of the National Animal Disease Center (Mark Rasmussen and Thomas Casey), in Ames have developed and patented a device, which is used to detect feces on fresh meat. That is the primary cause of meat contamination.

The instrument uses specific wavelengths or colors of light to illuminate the carcass. Collected light returned from the carcass is electronically analyzed to determine if fecal matter is present.

The device focuses on grass that has been digested by the animal. If fecal matter has gotten on the carcass during the slaughtering stage, Petrich's device will detect it.

"What's so nice about the technology, is that it's very simple," Petrich said.

The VerifEYE ™ Carcass Inspection System (CIS) has been further developed by emerge Interactive, Inc., a Florida-based technology company providing food safety, individual-animal tracking and supply-procreant services to the $40 billion beef production industry.

eMerge expects to install up to 15 CIS units by the end of 2004, generating $20 million in lease revenues over three years.

One of the first places the CIS has been installed is the Excel Corporation plant in Schulyer, Neb. Excel, a subsidiary of Cargill, Inc., is a leading meat processor. Plans are underway by Excel to utilize the technology in the firm's remaining North American processing facilities.

The CIS will provide Excel the ability to flag possible contamination that's visible to the naked eye and provide an additional method of inspecting carcasses.

A handheld version of the system has recently been adapted by the remaining top five U.S. beef processors, in addition to other leading companies to improve product quality in those beef processing plants.

Inspectors can now more accurately detect such diseases as e coli, Salmonella, Listeria and others.

"Our goal was to be able to look at every carcass before it leaves the plant," Petrich said.

The CIS provides automated inspection of carcasses at line speeds up to 450 carcasses per hour, while providing processors with trend and performance data to aid in the refinement of processes to further improve carcass quality.

The device was awarded a 2000 R&D 100 Award, which honors the top 100 products of technological significance that were marketed or licensed during the previous calendar year. The awards are only awards for applied science and scientists.

Petrich, Casey and Rasmussen will receive the 2003 ARS Technology Transfer Award for "development of a method and system for defecting fecal contamination on the carcasses of meat animals" at a meeting in New Orleans next January.