Happy Winter!
New gizmos and gadgets are all around us, especially this season. “FoodAls” might be getting a new gadget for their uses. This one could be particularly helpful in giving a high level of confidence to them, since most people in food service know very little about what is in food or the importance of understanding food allergies. I would love to hear your opinions on what you think of this gadget! Will it work? Is it effective? Would you use it?
A team of researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a lightweight device called the iTube, which attaches to a common cell phone to detect allergens in food samples. The iTube attachment uses the cell phone's built-in camera, along with an accompanying smart-phone application that runs a test with the same high level of sensitivity a laboratory would.
Food allergies are an emerging public concern, affecting as many as 150 million people worldwide. Allergic reactions can be severe and even life-threatening. While consumer-protection laws regulate the labeling of ingredients in pre-packaged foods, cross-contamination can still occur during processing, manufacturing and transportation. Consumer laws still don’t protect “foodals” (food allergic people) in restaurants. While laws continue to evolve, the lack of education required in food service is underwhelming. The lack of knowledge about food is even more concerning and generally gives food allergics little confidence in eating out and shopping.
The iTube was developed to address the confidence of food allergics and in a way gives them the freedom to get out and eat without risking their life or their bodies. The prototype weighs less than two ounces. It is an attachment for the smartphone, which analyzes food in a test tube and is based on an allergen-concentration test known as a colorimetric assay.
The UCLA team successfully tested the iTube using commercially available cookies, analyzing the samples to determine if they had any harmful amount of peanuts, a potential allergen. Their research was recently published online in the peer-reviewed journal Lab on a Chip and will be featured in a forthcoming print issue of the journal.
Allergen-testing results of various food products, tagged with a time and location stamp, can be uploaded directly from cell phones to iTube servers to create a personalized testing archive, which could provide additional resources for allergic individuals around the world. A statistical allergy database, coupled with geographic information, could be useful for future food-related policies — for example in restaurants, food production and for consumer protection, the researchers said.
The Ozcan BioPhotonics Lab is funded by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award.
Allergen-testing results of various food products, tagged with a time and location stamp, can be uploaded directly from cell phones to iTube servers to create a personalized testing archive, which could provide additional resources for allergic individuals around the world. A statistical allergy database, coupled with geographic information, could be useful for future food-related policies — for example in restaurants, food production and for consumer protection, the researchers said.
The Ozcan BioPhotonics Lab is funded by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award.
The Ozcan BioPhotonics Lab is funded by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award.
To test for allergens, food samples are initially ground up and
mixed in a test tube with hot water and an extraction solvent; this mixture
must set for several minutes to be properly assessed. Then, following a
step-by-step procedure, the prepared sample is mixed with a series of other
reactive testing liquids. The entire preparation takes roughly 20 minutes. That
is a really long time to wait to eat your food. If it is a hot item, it would definitely
be cold before consuming. I hope that analysis window can be shortened.
However, if there is a central database, I suppose most food would only have to
be analyzed once, assuming all things stay the same with recipes. When the sample is ready, it is measured
optically for allergen concentration through the iTube platform, using the cell
phone's camera and a smart application running on the phone.
The kit digitally converts raw images from the cell-phone camera
into concentration measurements detected in the food samples. The results will quantify
how much of an allergen is present, in parts per million.
The iTube platform can test for a variety of allergens,
including peanuts, almonds, eggs, gluten and hazelnuts, Ozcan said. I’m hoping
he will incorporate at least the top 10 food allergens but it would be better
if he could customize this app so users could input their specific food
allergies and it would test for those.
"We envision that this cell phone–based allergen testing
platform could be very valuable, especially for parents, as well as for
schools, restaurants and other public settings," Ozcan said. "Once
successfully deployed in these settings, the big amount of data — as a function
of both location and time — that this platform will continuously generate would
indeed be priceless for consumers, food manufacturers, policymakers and
researchers, among others."
For more information on the Ozcan BioPhotonics Research Group,
visit http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu and http://biogames.ee.ucla.edu.
Contact Food Allergy Gal, click link.
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