New Local Device Making Historic Strides in Food Safety
By: Eugene Daniel
Updated: March 21, 2013
PEORIA - Everything we
eat needs to be checked for things that could make us sick.
Well, those 'checks'
take place at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Lab in Peoria.
"Our job is to -
through a variety of ways - improve the safety of the food supply and the
productivity of the American farm," said lead food safety researcher Todd Ward.
Recently, Ward and his
staff got a new toy. The machine is called "the proton," and it detects and
finds ways to attack dangerous, even deadly, bacteria in food.
"You really have
the specificity that the DNA technologies offer to identify those bacteria and
kind of fingerprint them, just like we do human fingerprints in crime
investigations," Ward said.
With this device, researchers
can examine hundreds to thousands of bacteria in one day. Before, that would
have taken months or years. In fact, it allows scientists to investigate full
genomes, where bacteria are located, which previously was not capable at the
Peoria location. Now, the staff can detect harmful bacteria, develop new
technologies and protect food quicker.
"You're going to
reduce the size of outbreaks because you can get those recalls in faster and
material can be pulled from the shelves before it ever ends up in the
refrigerator," said Ward.
Ward says the staff is
already producing groundbreaking results, and making sure what's on your plate
is safe to eat.
Also, some local
college students are getting hands-on experience with those new technologies. This
week, 12 Northeastern Illinois students are spending their spring break as interns
at the Peoria Agriculture Lab. They get to shadow top-notch scientists and see
what its like to work in a real lab. The students say it confirms that science
is cool.
"It's very
exciting. It's very exciting. I look forward to coming here in the morning. Not
really a morning person, but in this case, I will make the exception," said Anthony
Smith.
This is only the second
year of the program. The students will finish up their internships on Friday.
