Detecting food allergens with a portable device

We’re never sure about what’s in the food we eat, from pre-packaged foods to an expensive meal in a restaurant. Traces of shrimp, wheat, nuts or other ingredient could trigger mild to severe allergies.Certainly, most pre-packaged foods come with their labels as required by law. In some cases, however, cross-contamination is still possible. Food allergies affect as many as 8% of young children and 2% of adults.

For consumers sensitive to particular ingredients, a new device developed by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science makes it possible to test food samples before consumption even in public places. Called the iTube, the devise meets the same sensitivity standards as a laboratory test. The new tool attaches to a cell phone and uses the built-in camera, along with a smart-phone application that runs a test.

"We envision that this cell phone-based allergen testing platform could be very valuable, especially for parents, as well as for schools, restaurants and other public settings," said Aydogan Ozcan, leader of the research team and a UCLA associate professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering. "Once successfully deployed in these settings, the big amount of data – as a function of both location and time – that this platform will continuously generate would indeed be priceless for consumers, food manufacturers, policymakers and researchers, among others."

Allergen-testing results of various food products, tagged with a time and location stamp, can be uploaded directly from cell phones to iTube servers to create a personalised testing archive, which could provide additional resources for allergic individuals around the world. A statistical allergy database, coupled with geographic information, could be useful for future food-related policies -- for example in restaurants, food production and for consumer protection, the researchers said.

Handiest, highly sensitive devise of its kind

Although several products that detect allergens in foods are currently available, they are complex and require bulkyAir Max 95 Stussy