Aberystwyth scientists work to stop food poisoning
Scientists at Aberystwyth University are developing a system to identify miniscule traces of faecal contamination on chicken carcases in abattoirs that can cause deadly food poisoning outbreaks.
Although invisible to the human eye, the smallest trace of contamination can harbour millions of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms and enter the human food chain.
The Improved Food Safety initiative - a Collaborative Industrial Research Project undertaken by the University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) - aims to develop a natural additive to poultry feed that will result in ultra-violet fluorescence of faeces.
The additive, a water soluble chlorophyll based marker approved by the Food Standards Agency, would be fed to poultry during the last few days of finishing. When screened in abattoirs using fluorescence imaging, the markers would show up and identify any contamination.
The research project is supported with funding from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B), an initiative backed by European funding designed to increase collaboration between academia and industry and drive forward the commercialisation of research.
Private sector partners involved in the project include the supermarket Waitrose, Castell Howell Foods, food wholesalers from Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, Randall Parker Foods, a regional abattoir in Llanidloes, Wynnstay Group PLC of Llansantffraid, leading producers and retailers of animal feeds and British Chlorophyll Company Limited, Europe’s leading manufacturer and supplier of chlorophyll .
The project builds on novel technology IBERS is currently developing to detect faecal contamination of red meat. That project has developed markers that can be added to the diet of ruminants to increase fluorescence of faecal matter that can be detected when screened.
A patent application has been filed for this technology and resulted in significant industry attention with requests to take up licensing of the technology in China and India, as well as significant interest from the US and Latin America.
The Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales, Prof John Harries, said the project had the potential to make a significant impact on food safety while also creating economic benefits for the food industry in Wales.
“It also clearly illustrates the value of collaborative industrial research between business and academia, aimed at turning good ideas into commercial propositions, bringing new products and processes onto the market.”
Dr Michael Lee, from IBERS, said the aim is to create a ‘gold standard’ system in Wales for screening carcasses at the abattoir and to develop and commercialise novel Intellectual Property from the project, which would benefit the food industry in Wales.
“The growing popularity of poultry has been overshadowed by a worldwide public health concern, which has focussed on microbial food safety. Poultry meat, especially chicken, is cited as the primary cause of human food poisoning in epidemiological reports.
“Worldwide, suppliers, consumers and public health officials remain concerned over the presence of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in poultry meat and its by-products, which have resulted in large numbers of food poisoning attributed to poultry
“This project will investigate and develop a system for screening poultry carcasses so that unseen faecal contaminants will be visualised. By doing so, any microbial contamination can be greatly reduced or removed completely, depending on the method of intervention.
“It will improve public health by reducing food poisoning outbreaks and we believe it will lead to new products, processes and services including new feeds formulated to contain the most fluorescent and stable marker and the development of a spectral imaging system for the detection of the marker above.”
The project will be launched on Monday 18th July at the IBERS reception in the Royal Welsh Show – from 5 -7 p.m. in the Aberystwyth University Education Pavilion adjacent to S4C above the main ring. Members of the press and media are invited to attend.
About A4B
Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) is a six year project funded by the Welsh Government and European Structural Funds, and geared to ensure Wales maximises the economic impact of its academic institutions.
• A4B supports a range of activities in higher and further educational institutions to develop more effective knowledge transfer mechanisms, to commercialise their Intellectual Property, develop new products and processes, increase business investment in R&D and develop and exploit the research base.
• Funding is available to academic institutions for projects that involve collaboration with businesses
Business benefits
Animal feed manufacturing is a multi-million pound industry. The red meat or ruminant Improved Food Safety project will provide opportunities for Welsh feed manufacturers to develop novel feed additives used to reduce the pathogen load in the human food chain.
Welsh firms will be able to develop Intellectual Property (IP) associated with animal feeds with the potential to sell to national and global feed manufacturers, benefiting the Welsh economy.
The poultry industry in Wales
In the June 2009 survey of agriculture and horticulture the annual value of the poultry industry in Wales was estimated to be around £10M with the industry growing year on year with numerous farmers diversifying to include a poultry element to their business to improve competiveness.
Poultry in Wales includes 1.5 million pullets and birds kept for egg production, 5.6 million broilers, 18,000 cocks and cockerels, 57,000 turkeys and 72,000 other poultry including geese and ducks.
Food waste
Currently supermarkets discard 1.6 million tonnes of food as waste per annum. A large proportion of food is discarded due to products reaching there best before date before purchase. Issues of shelf life cost the food industry millions of pounds each year.
Industrial partners in the poultry project :
Castell Howell Foods Limited
Address: Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, Central Wales
Role: A Welsh food wholesaler that supplies schools and hospitals has an interest in the project because of the potential to increase the safety of products supplied to consumers.
Randall Parker Foods
Address: Dolwen, Oakley Park, Llanidloes, Powys, Central Wales
Role: The involvement of a regional abattoir is essential for the development of the on-line spectral detection system. Close involvement with the abattoir will ensure that the development will fit closely into current systems and improve current Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) procedures, which is a system for monitoring food safety hazards.
Wynnstay Group PLC
Address: Llansantffraid, Powys, Central Wales
Role: As a national leader for the production and retail of animal feeds, their expertise in the development of feeding systems for the markers is vital.
British Chlorophyll Company Limited
Address: Temple Grange, Navenby, Lincoln, England
Role: As Europe’s leading manufacturer and supplier of chlorophyll, their expertise in developing the most suitable based marker is invaluable. It will also ensure that production of the marker can be industrialised at the lowest possible cost. They will also supply all the chlorophyll material for the project.
Waitrose Limited
Address: Bracknell, Berkshire, England
Role: Having the backing of one of Britain’s leading retailers will ensure that the technology has maximum chance of succeeding and ensure it is economically viable. Waitrose will also allow access to Moy Park who supply all their poultry meat products and are a major European poultry producer and processor.
IBERS
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University, was established in April 2008 following the merger of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, formerly part of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with Aberystwyth University. IBERS continues to receive significant funding for research from the BBSRC and benefits from financial support from the Welsh Assembly Government, DEFRA and the European Union.
Around 300 research, teaching and support staff conduct basic, strategic and applied research in biology from the level of genes and other molecules to the impact of climate change and bio-energy on sustainable agriculture and land use.
Although invisible to the human eye, the smallest trace of contamination can harbour millions of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms and enter the human food chain.
The Improved Food Safety initiative - a Collaborative Industrial Research Project undertaken by the University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) - aims to develop a natural additive to poultry feed that will result in ultra-violet fluorescence of faeces.
The additive, a water soluble chlorophyll based marker approved by the Food Standards Agency, would be fed to poultry during the last few days of finishing. When screened in abattoirs using fluorescence imaging, the markers would show up and identify any contamination.
The research project is supported with funding from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B), an initiative backed by European funding designed to increase collaboration between academia and industry and drive forward the commercialisation of research.
Private sector partners involved in the project include the supermarket Waitrose, Castell Howell Foods, food wholesalers from Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, Randall Parker Foods, a regional abattoir in Llanidloes, Wynnstay Group PLC of Llansantffraid, leading producers and retailers of animal feeds and British Chlorophyll Company Limited, Europe’s leading manufacturer and supplier of chlorophyll .
The project builds on novel technology IBERS is currently developing to detect faecal contamination of red meat. That project has developed markers that can be added to the diet of ruminants to increase fluorescence of faecal matter that can be detected when screened.
A patent application has been filed for this technology and resulted in significant industry attention with requests to take up licensing of the technology in China and India, as well as significant interest from the US and Latin America.
The Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales, Prof John Harries, said the project had the potential to make a significant impact on food safety while also creating economic benefits for the food industry in Wales.
“It also clearly illustrates the value of collaborative industrial research between business and academia, aimed at turning good ideas into commercial propositions, bringing new products and processes onto the market.”
Dr Michael Lee, from IBERS, said the aim is to create a ‘gold standard’ system in Wales for screening carcasses at the abattoir and to develop and commercialise novel Intellectual Property from the project, which would benefit the food industry in Wales.
“The growing popularity of poultry has been overshadowed by a worldwide public health concern, which has focussed on microbial food safety. Poultry meat, especially chicken, is cited as the primary cause of human food poisoning in epidemiological reports.
“Worldwide, suppliers, consumers and public health officials remain concerned over the presence of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in poultry meat and its by-products, which have resulted in large numbers of food poisoning attributed to poultry
“This project will investigate and develop a system for screening poultry carcasses so that unseen faecal contaminants will be visualised. By doing so, any microbial contamination can be greatly reduced or removed completely, depending on the method of intervention.
“It will improve public health by reducing food poisoning outbreaks and we believe it will lead to new products, processes and services including new feeds formulated to contain the most fluorescent and stable marker and the development of a spectral imaging system for the detection of the marker above.”
The project will be launched on Monday 18th July at the IBERS reception in the Royal Welsh Show – from 5 -7 p.m. in the Aberystwyth University Education Pavilion adjacent to S4C above the main ring. Members of the press and media are invited to attend.
About A4B
Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) is a six year project funded by the Welsh Government and European Structural Funds, and geared to ensure Wales maximises the economic impact of its academic institutions.
• A4B supports a range of activities in higher and further educational institutions to develop more effective knowledge transfer mechanisms, to commercialise their Intellectual Property, develop new products and processes, increase business investment in R&D and develop and exploit the research base.
• Funding is available to academic institutions for projects that involve collaboration with businesses
Business benefits
Animal feed manufacturing is a multi-million pound industry. The red meat or ruminant Improved Food Safety project will provide opportunities for Welsh feed manufacturers to develop novel feed additives used to reduce the pathogen load in the human food chain.
Welsh firms will be able to develop Intellectual Property (IP) associated with animal feeds with the potential to sell to national and global feed manufacturers, benefiting the Welsh economy.
The poultry industry in Wales
In the June 2009 survey of agriculture and horticulture the annual value of the poultry industry in Wales was estimated to be around £10M with the industry growing year on year with numerous farmers diversifying to include a poultry element to their business to improve competiveness.
Poultry in Wales includes 1.5 million pullets and birds kept for egg production, 5.6 million broilers, 18,000 cocks and cockerels, 57,000 turkeys and 72,000 other poultry including geese and ducks.
Food waste
Currently supermarkets discard 1.6 million tonnes of food as waste per annum. A large proportion of food is discarded due to products reaching there best before date before purchase. Issues of shelf life cost the food industry millions of pounds each year.
Industrial partners in the poultry project :
Castell Howell Foods Limited
Address: Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, Central Wales
Role: A Welsh food wholesaler that supplies schools and hospitals has an interest in the project because of the potential to increase the safety of products supplied to consumers.
Randall Parker Foods
Address: Dolwen, Oakley Park, Llanidloes, Powys, Central Wales
Role: The involvement of a regional abattoir is essential for the development of the on-line spectral detection system. Close involvement with the abattoir will ensure that the development will fit closely into current systems and improve current Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) procedures, which is a system for monitoring food safety hazards.
Wynnstay Group PLC
Address: Llansantffraid, Powys, Central Wales
Role: As a national leader for the production and retail of animal feeds, their expertise in the development of feeding systems for the markers is vital.
British Chlorophyll Company Limited
Address: Temple Grange, Navenby, Lincoln, England
Role: As Europe’s leading manufacturer and supplier of chlorophyll, their expertise in developing the most suitable based marker is invaluable. It will also ensure that production of the marker can be industrialised at the lowest possible cost. They will also supply all the chlorophyll material for the project.
Waitrose Limited
Address: Bracknell, Berkshire, England
Role: Having the backing of one of Britain’s leading retailers will ensure that the technology has maximum chance of succeeding and ensure it is economically viable. Waitrose will also allow access to Moy Park who supply all their poultry meat products and are a major European poultry producer and processor.
IBERS
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University, was established in April 2008 following the merger of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, formerly part of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with Aberystwyth University. IBERS continues to receive significant funding for research from the BBSRC and benefits from financial support from the Welsh Assembly Government, DEFRA and the European Union.
Around 300 research, teaching and support staff conduct basic, strategic and applied research in biology from the level of genes and other molecules to the impact of climate change and bio-energy on sustainable agriculture and land use.
Comments