Four Nagpur students find answer to food adulteration
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NAGPUR: With incidents of food adulteration
hitting the headlines and organic products appealing to so many
people's fancy, many of us would wish to know what we are eating along
with our food. Four city students have developed a device that can
actually help one determine the pesticide content in any eatable and
help one clean it up too.
Christened as the portable toxic threat detector (PTTD), the mechanism developed by third year electronics and telecommunication engineering students of GH Raisoni College of Engineering Saurabh Puranik, Shreya Dhondarikar, Sagar Nasre and Sowmya Singh, also tells you whether or not something is safe to eat. The device also tells the best method to scientifically remove the contaminant.
It was reading about the prevalence of diseases caused by contaminated food that led Saurabh to find a way out. "Articles about the high pesticide content in the farm produce in India being very high and how entire population was facing the threat of genetic disorder and cancer scared me. So, I decided to do something about it," he said.
The team first searched the Internet for research, devices and other available resources on the topic. They did a gap analysis and concluded that time-consuming methods, reliance on big laboratories and expensive chemicals required for it hampered people's willingness to find out a solution about the food they were consuming. Lack of awareness and that of experts also affected this. In their quest to solve these problems, the budding engineers have been doing their own research for the past one and a half years.
"We developed the threat detector that can give qualitative and quantitative analysis of the foodstuff. Since the device could only be helpful in case of solid food items, we developed another one which looks like a mobile phone and can be put inside a container," he said. Both these devices give instantaneous results with the help of biosensors. The present device is only a prototype and can take a weight up to one kilogram.
However, several changes are being planned by the team. "First of all we want to increase the weighing capacity of the machine to make it more useful. I also wish to add a purifier in the device to make it a complete kit. Also, there are plans to make the software used in the device available on smartphones in the form of an app," said Saurabh.
The PTTD has been presented at many national and international forums where it has garnered much appreciation. The team is now in talks with several laboratories like National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (Neeri) and AGMARK to help them with the lab testing of the device which will help them apply for a patent. They have also presented the idea to some venture capitalists who have shown their interest in it.
HOW IT WORKS:
Food stuff is kept on the plate on the sensor
In case of a liquid, the device shaped like a mobile phone is dipped into it
Bio sensors help detect the chemicals contained in the item
It gives out the quantitative measurement of contaminants and tells about the quality of the foodstuff
A software that has information about permissible limits of all known contaminants, processes the data of the given foodstuff to display the safety level
POSSIBLE USES:
Food industry
Malls and supermarket
Catering services, restaurants and canteens
At homes
Christened as the portable toxic threat detector (PTTD), the mechanism developed by third year electronics and telecommunication engineering students of GH Raisoni College of Engineering Saurabh Puranik, Shreya Dhondarikar, Sagar Nasre and Sowmya Singh, also tells you whether or not something is safe to eat. The device also tells the best method to scientifically remove the contaminant.
It was reading about the prevalence of diseases caused by contaminated food that led Saurabh to find a way out. "Articles about the high pesticide content in the farm produce in India being very high and how entire population was facing the threat of genetic disorder and cancer scared me. So, I decided to do something about it," he said.
The team first searched the Internet for research, devices and other available resources on the topic. They did a gap analysis and concluded that time-consuming methods, reliance on big laboratories and expensive chemicals required for it hampered people's willingness to find out a solution about the food they were consuming. Lack of awareness and that of experts also affected this. In their quest to solve these problems, the budding engineers have been doing their own research for the past one and a half years.
"We developed the threat detector that can give qualitative and quantitative analysis of the foodstuff. Since the device could only be helpful in case of solid food items, we developed another one which looks like a mobile phone and can be put inside a container," he said. Both these devices give instantaneous results with the help of biosensors. The present device is only a prototype and can take a weight up to one kilogram.
However, several changes are being planned by the team. "First of all we want to increase the weighing capacity of the machine to make it more useful. I also wish to add a purifier in the device to make it a complete kit. Also, there are plans to make the software used in the device available on smartphones in the form of an app," said Saurabh.
The PTTD has been presented at many national and international forums where it has garnered much appreciation. The team is now in talks with several laboratories like National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (Neeri) and AGMARK to help them with the lab testing of the device which will help them apply for a patent. They have also presented the idea to some venture capitalists who have shown their interest in it.
HOW IT WORKS:
Food stuff is kept on the plate on the sensor
In case of a liquid, the device shaped like a mobile phone is dipped into it
Bio sensors help detect the chemicals contained in the item
It gives out the quantitative measurement of contaminants and tells about the quality of the foodstuff
A software that has information about permissible limits of all known contaminants, processes the data of the given foodstuff to display the safety level
POSSIBLE USES:
Food industry
Malls and supermarket
Catering services, restaurants and canteens
At homes
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