Objectives

h-ALO aims to develop a bio-chemical photonic sensor as a food screening tool for the early detection of contamination in food, enabling early warning and short-loop corrective actions and guaranteeing cost-effective food safety and food quality monitoring in the farm-to-fork local food chains.

h-ALO combines micro-nanotechnologies for optical sensing based on nanoplasmonics, advanced biorecognition, micro-engineered surfaces and microfluidics for the realization of an ICT monitoring analytical instrumentation that aims at impacting on food-chain security market by outperforming current commercially available portable tools for contamination detection in terms of cost, sensitivity, usability, and time to detection.

At the same time, h-ALO wants to develop a tool that is useful for end-users, thus contributing to the empowerment of new farming approaches and strengthen the competitiveness of local food production and retail chains.

Key innovations and strength points

Multiplex-analyte recognition

Simultaneous detection of target analytes belonging to the classes of micro-organisms, pesticides/antiparasitics and heavy metals

High sensitivity and low limit-of-detection

Through the combination of an analyte pre-concentration and a multi-modal detection scheme

Miniaturization and integration

The optoelectronic and plasmonic components allow portability in optical detection

Preparation protocols

Simple processes such as syringe filtration, adaptable for a wide range of agri-food chains. The sensor cartridge can be used up to 100 times

Measurement automation

The sensor is reliable for on-site use by non-expert food operators. Multiplex measure time will be within 5-10 minutes and 1 hour when sample preparation is needed

Advanced data management

Mobile-phone connectivity and cloud-based sharing capability that allow a distributed food monitoring along the farm-to-fork chain

Expected Impacts

h-ALO will impact on advancing the European digital transformation prompted by photonics in the Agriculture & Food sector by providing an affordable and portable monitoring system that allows farmers, food processors and retailers to monitor the safety and quality of food in real-time. h-ALO sensor will be versatile, fast and easy to use and, differently from competitive solutions such as dip-sticks, the sensitivity of h-ALO will be comparable to that of laboratory standard expensive and time-consuming tests.

To strengthen farm-to-fork food production and processing by ensuring high food quality standards at lower costs

To reduce food waste along the farm-to-fork food production chain with cost-effective and easy-to-use analytic tools

To boost the use of optical biosensor technology in the field of food diagnostics

To ultimately contribute to the reduction of food-associated health issues and support the global fight against climate change

Benefits for h-ALO sensor users

To better comply with quality and safety standards

To reduce use of resource and production costs

To meet the consumers increasing demand for high quality and safe regional, organic and specialty products

To create a database of analyses since all data registered through the h-ALO sensor can be stored in the cloud and made accessible any time

To address new markets, strengthen local markets and farmers’ market