IMPRESS - IMPRoved Food Safety Monitoring through Enhanced Imaging NanoplaSmonicS

The objective of the IMPRESS project is to develop an affordable, portable, multiplexing and flexible Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensor device (the IMPRESSOR), based on Plasmores nanotechnology expertise, to obtain a fast impression of the quality and safety of food.
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Affordable: the system will be affordable for any small or medium enterprise or even private user, which is producing or distributing or consuming food in any country or region of the world. Portable: the system will be easy-to-use in any environment and must work outside any specialized laboratory. Multiplexed: the system will be able to measure the concentration of many contaminants in a single sample of food and within a single measurement.
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Flexible: the system is designed to develop assays according to the wishes of the future users (customized). Fast: measurements are done in minutes and the sample-to-result time will be around 30 minutes. This will allow the real time monitoring of the quality of food.
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This system will be constituted by two fundamental elements:
<OL> <LI> A disposable biochip customized for the detection of a set of parameters of the quality of the food (e.g. the detection of a set of allergens, toxins or antibiotics) and
<LI> An electronic reading system enabling the dispensing and the analytical screening of the food sample and the electronic evaluation, storage and communication of the results.
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Such a system will have a huge impact in the food monitoring protocols and will significantly contribute to the spreading of alternative, fast and reliable analytical methods for food safety control.
This will help:
<ul> <LI> industries and distributors to provide safer and healthier food products,
<LI> public regulatory bodies to improve the quality of the food control tests while reducing the assay costs,
<LI> end-users and small distributors to verify the quality of their everyday food products