PhasmaFOOD's main goal achieved, is to deliver an autonomous, multifunctional multi-sensor optical sensing device for the detection of food quality and safety issues such as food spoilage, adulteration, and aflatoxins. The system is based on visible and near infrared spectroscopy technologies and is supported by an open software architecture to support highly differentiated applicative goals throughout the food supply chain. PhasmaFOOD delivers fast characterisation of foods, encompassing an extendable framework for the deployment of smart chemometric algorithms, data fusion strategies and reference laboratory measurements.
The PhasmaFOOD project has been built upon 4 distinct objectives:
(i) To provide a miniaturized, multi-parameter and programmable sensing node for food spoilage (through microbial activity), food safety (i.e. mycotoxin detection) and adulteration, via the integration of heterogeneous vibrational spectroscopy (visible, fluorescence and near infrared), sensors.
(ii) To provide a smart system embedding detective and predictive capabilities by incorporating smart signal processing, data analytic models, communication enablers and smart algorithms.
(iii) To build food analysis platform hosting data sets for training and calibration of food analysis algorithms and providing proactive decision-making deeper insight into patterns and correlations in sensory data.
(iv) To ensure manufacturability, reliability, and cost‐effectiveness of the whole system for food spoilage, safety, and adulteration sensing applications, targeting realistic business model analysis.
The project approach has certainly been proved to be solid for viable and general-purpose food scanning. The key innovations of the project are the PhasmaFOOD device that integrated 3 different spectroscopies and a high-resolution camera and the PhasmaFOOD software platform that was developed to support the standard laboratory procedures with two different versions for stakeholder needs. The creation of high-quality reference data sets and food analysis models can additionally be considered as an added value asset of the PhasmaFOOD project.
The innovation potential can be safely considered high enough after the identification of a market gap in food safety. In addition, through the intense effort of all partners, the PhasmaFOOD prototype managed to attract the interest of several stakeholders from diverse industrial domains. Numerous trials have showcased the reliability of the device achieving high accuracy results in all use cases examined during the project.
