10–12 May 2022
Izola
Europe/Ljubljana timezone

DIALPAS, a New Non-destructive Spectral Sensor for Easy Real-time Sensitive Detection of Food Fraud

Not scheduled
20m
InnoRenew CoE (Izola)

InnoRenew CoE

Izola

Livade 6

Speaker

Luca Fiorani

Description

The increasing globalization of world trade, without mutual recognition of international standards, urgently requires new technologies for reliable assessment of food integrity. The DIM Laboratory of FSN Department – ENEA applies spectroscopic techniques to fraud detection in fruit juice, oil, oregano, milk, pollens, rice, saffron, and sea food. Although a wide range of cutting-edge methods are in the DIM Laboratory armoury – LIBS (laser induced breakdown spectroscopy), FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy), Raman spectroscopy, spectro fluorometry, remote sensing – its flagship technology is LPAS (laser photoacoustic spectroscopy). In a typical LPAS system (Fiorani L. et al., 2021), a laser beam is modulated at an audio frequency and injected into a resonant cell where it hits the investigated sample that absorbs the incident radiation. The sample therefore experiences a rise in temperature and volume, thus producing a pressure wave. In general, the sound detection subsystem is made of a microphone connected with a lock-in amplifier synchronized with the modulator. The output signal is proportional to the sample absorption and typical experiments are conducted in the “fingerprint region”, a large band of the infrared (IR) spectrum where many organic compounds can be identified. The studies carried out at the DIM Laboratory showed that LPAS has the following advantages: rapidity, sensitivity, specificity, simplicity, repeatability, in situ measurement, uncomplicated sampling, ease of use and cost-effectiveness. Current systems are based on quantum cascade laser (QCL) that can be continuously tuned in a large spectral range. This latter characteristic is very important for non-targeted approaches. Moreover, QCLs are robust and small, allowing one to develop a portable system for rapid detection of food fraud in industrial settings. Recently, DIALPAS – an improved approach of LPAS (patented) – spotted within seconds a significant economically motivated adulteration (EMA) on untreated samples with a limit of detection of a few percent.

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