Italian researchers from ENEA, the national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development have added yet another tool to the box of food fraud analysts. What goes by the name of Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (LPAS for short) has already been used by researchers to characterize sugars and sweeteners. Now, researchers have used this technology to analyze samples for adulteration.
The principle of this non-destructive technology not new. Already 1880 Alexander Graham Bell could demonstrate that thin discs emit a sound when exposed to a beam of sunlight. The difference with today’s technology is that instead of sunlight, laser beams are used to penetrate objects and the resulting acoustic waves are being measured. These are characteristic for the type of object they penetrate, i.e. when salt is penetrated by a laser beam, it ‘sounds’ different from sugar.
This technology was used by the Italian researchers in the group of Luca Fiorani to measure and distinguish different types Basmati, a product commonly adulterated with non-Basmati varieties.
Differentiation of Basmati Rice. Source: L.Fiorani, RT/2017/41/ENEA
Each measurement only takes a single second, making this technology very fast.
The LPAS equipment in its current configuration is too large to be portable. However, the researchers offer suggestions how to convert this into a mobile device. This would allow testing in ports and at origin.
The full report can be downloaded from the ENEA website.
