UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Two professors in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences were part of a team that won a prestigious Secretary's Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for research work to increase the efficiency, security, sustainability and profitability of the fruit and vegetable industry through application of new technology.

Paul Heinemann and Joseph Irudayaraj, professor and associate professor, respectively, of agricultural engineering, are part of the Northeast Multi-State Research Group nominated for the honor from the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. Researchers at 12 other universities and Penn State, as well as at several USDA laboratories, have been investigating how nondestructive, noninvasive technologies can be used to reveal the condition of fruits and vegetables.

"As a group, we have looked at what advanced sensor technologies -- such as x-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, infrared spectroscopy and machine vision -- can quickly and efficiently reveal about produce," says Heinemann. "Most of these technologies have come from medical disciplines, and the major advantage is that they don't damage the fruit or vegetables, unlike other laboratory tests that are much slower and result in a waste of produce."

Using advanced technologies allows processors to check for such things as pathogens, bruises, spoilage, surface blemishes and size along the production line at a packing plant, where it would be impractical to do laboratory tests. Some of these technologies are already in commercial use to protect food safety.

"It's very important to the public directly," says Heinemann. "This technology affects the quality of what folks see and buy in the grocery stores. We tried to apply existing technologies to detect the presence of pathogens and other defects before the produce gets to market." In recent years, Heinemann, who earned his master's degree in agricultural engineering from Penn State and his doctoral degree in agricultural meteorology at the University of Florida, has concentrated on applying "electronic nose" technology. "The electronic nose is a device that attempts to mimic the human sense of smell," he explains. "The one I have been working with has 32 sensors, and each one is sensitive to a different compound. For example, we have used it to detect e. coli on apples. This technology shows promise in detecting the presence of bacteria before fruit or vegetables even go into a processing plant. It will be a first-step filter."

Irudayaraj, who received two master's degrees from University of Hawaii -- one in agricultural engineering and the other in computer science -- and a doctoral degree from Purdue in food process engineering, has focused his research on optical sensors for food quality and safety assessment. This technology can reveal the presence of certain defects or surface characteristics on produce by detecting differences in the way light is reflected.

For instance, a chemical incident on an apple may not be easily visible to a human eye, but may be readily apparent in the infrared fingerprint. Spectroscopic fingerprints of foods with different levels of contaminants, as well as with different microorganisms, indicate that differentiation and classification is possible. In more complex situations, "markers" need to be identified for classification.

"We are using visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared light wavelengths to evaluate the quality of produce and to look for contaminants and undesirable chemical components," Irudayaraj explained. "Rapid detection and evaluation will allow the discovery of pathogens without laboratory analysis, yielding immediate results."

EDITORS: Contact Paul Heinemann at 814-865-2633 or by e-mail at hzh@psu.edu.

###

Contact:

Jeff Mulhollem jjm29@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-863-9877 fax #202