Global Detection Sensors Technology Innovation Award
By Dr. Rajender Thusu
April 29, 2010
Key Industry Challenges Addressed by Technology Innovation
One of the main challenges in the food and beverages industry is to ensure food quality, and subsequent food safety and public health throughout the food supply chain. As an example, the quality of milk is bound to changes as it goes through the different levels of the food supply chain from the time of the milking process until it is stored at the supermarket and finally reaches the consumer’s refrigerator. Ensuring food quality throughout the food supply chain is not only a significant challenge, but also of utmost importance, considering the deadly consequences of low-quality or contaminated food and beverages could have on consumers, not to mention the damage to the manufacturer’s brand or the costs associated with a product recall. In the end, the quality and safety of food and beverages through the manufacturing processes and supply chain leads to overall public health as well as strong brands for the food manufacturers.
Another significant challenge in the food safety industry is the lengthy and costly process of taking samples from production facilities to remote laboratories and waiting for the analysis results. Market participants throughout the value chain of the food safety industry need highly accurate results in order to respond to operational requirements in the field and in real-time. Sensor vendors can help overcome these challenges by introducing technologies that increase the safety and inspection of food and beverages during the manufacturing process and additional stages of the food chain supply in order to protect overall public health and the brand value of the food and beverage producers.
For the Technology Innovation Award, the following criteria were used to benchmark MS Tech’s performance against key competitors:
- Uniqueness of Technology
- Impact on New Products/Applications
- Impact on Functionality
- Impact on Customer Value
- Relevance of Innovation to Industry
Criterion 1: Uniqueness of Technology
MS Tech’s patented High-Frequency Quartz Crystal Microbalance (HF-QCM) sensor technology meets the industry needs for sensors of high sensitivity, accuracy and speed. Since manufacturers and producers of food and beverages need a high-level of performance under different physical conditions, a number of solutions have been developed using the HF-QCM sensor technology, focusing on important perspectives, namely:
- High sensitivity, selectivity and specificity
- Real-time analysis and reporting
- Lowering the cost per sample
- Scanning for a wide range of degeneration problems during food processing
- Authenticity assessment and quality evaluation of raw materials
- Meeting customized end user specifications and needs
- Ensuring safety and improving quality assurance and control
- Improving customer value
High selectivity, which refers to the ability to form sensor arrays with different chemical coatings, is one of the most innovative aspects of MS Tech’s HF-QCM sensor technology. The technology’s capability to provide highly accurate, real-time analysis onsite holds tremendous potential to add value to any inspection efforts and operations. Other key aspects of this technology demonstrating innovation include a highly dynamic frequency range and proven industrialization of the sensors' manufacturing process. Another aspect that needs to be highlighted about the HF-QCM technology is that it is a totally green technology that does not employ any radioactive sources, as is the case with Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) and Gas-Chromatograph Mass-Spectrometer (GC-MS) instruments.
HF-QCM sensor technology is based on an amalgamation of several scientific disciplines, digitally recreating the mammalian olfactory processes (i.e. Electronic-Nose and Electronic-Tongue). HF-QCM utilizes the piezoelectric effect where changes in the mass of an oscillating crystal affect its resonating frequency by the adsorption of a foreign material on its surface. A gaseous pollutant is selectively adsorbed by a coating on the crystal surface, thereby increasing the weight of the crystal and decreasing the frequency of vibration. The decrease in the frequency is proportional to the increase in weight due to the presence of substance adsorbed on the coating. These changes in frequency can be accurately detected and measured.
MS Tech is the only company that has developed HF-QCM sensors and is unique in applying this novel technology in the food safety and inspection market as well as other industry sectors. Although, there are university laboratories using QCM sensors for lab research, they are typically in a very low-frequency. The unique application of HF-QCM will certainly provide MS Tech with distinct competitive advantages and enable the Company to attract innovative business partnerships and capitalize on profitable business opportunities. MS Tech currently holds a strong Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and is planning to register new patents in the field of sensor technologies during 2010-2012.
Criterion 2: Impact on New Products/Applications
MS Tech’s HF-QCM sensor technology is non-radioactive and does not use any ionizing source. The Company's solutions and products are designed either as "in-line" sensors or handheld and portable detectors that can be used in extreme operational conditions. In addition, they are designed to be robust, ruggedized and shockproof. MS Tech’s sensors can be customized to the uses of various customers. The Company offers fast adaptation and integration of its sensor technology for its customers’ existing machinery. This approach eliminates the need for customers to change their existing infrastructure and processes as MS Tech’s sensors can easily be adapted to their existing systems in use.
MS Tech takes pride in developing, manufacturing and innovating detection sensors for a variety of industrial applications. The industry sector that the Company is currently focusing on is the food and beverage inspection market and more specifically the milk and dairy market. Impressively, the Company’s generic technology has much wider applications including security and people screening, bio-medical diagnostics, aerospace and even the Cleantech industry with novel water quality and air monitoring applications.
Criterion 3: Impact on Functionality
MS Tech’s HF-QCM sensor technology can be integrated directly into handheld inspection devices also produced by MS Tech, enabling the rapid detection of a wide range of substances in field operations, including chemical contaminants, pesticides and foodborne pathogens, such as E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria. Accordingly, the net analysis time of the FoodScan 3000, MS Tech’s handheld food contamination detector, in which the HF-QCM sensor array is integrated, is just 3 seconds. Due to the sensors' unique design and amalgamation of several advance scientific detection methods, the HF-QCM technology can be efficiently applied to a diverse range of operational applications, while maintaining its precision performance even in extreme environmental conditions. For example, typical operating temperatures for the FoodScan 3000 range from -40° Fahrenheit to +122° Fahrenheit.
Criterion 4: Impact on Customer Value
MS Tech’s value proposition is about bringing fast analysis, high-throughput, increased inspection and low-cost per sample to end users. The Company offers a wide range of sensor solutions targeted at different markets and customer needs but mainly aims at improving real-time detection and analysis on-site. The smart design of the HF-QCM sensors
helps reduce installation and setup time, thereby ensuring continuity of analysis and making real-time data a reality. This helps systems reach new detection levels, not reached so far through conventional analysis methods. It is not only a technological leap forward, but also a cost effective solution for both low and high end such as field and laboratory applications, including in the milk and dairy industry, which is the largest liquid processed in the world for human consumption.
Criterion 5: Relevance of Innovation to Industry
MS Tech’s HF-QCM sensor technology could not be timelier with the growing number of food safety recalls. The consequences of food contamination can be deadly and have led to increasing government and industry mandated inspection measures and standards. Recalls are costly to food manufacturers and supermarkets as they often entail replacing the recalled product and paying for damages caused in use. In parallel, recalls can severely damage the brandname of a food and beverage manufacturer or producer and reduce consumer trust.
MS Tech’s currently developed FoodScan 3000 food contamination device, which is based on the HF-QCM sensor technology, is designed for end users to independently detect the absence or presence of contamination in an efficient manner and in real-time. Furthermore, there is a gap in the industry for real-time detection. End users do not want to take samples, send them to labs and wait hours or days to get the analysis results. This is not a cost-efficient process. With MS Tech’s HF-QCM detection sensors, results are highly accurate and immediately available in field operations. The Company is planning to integrate its products with wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to enable real-time reporting of test results and immediately alert relevant officials in case of a food contamination outbreak.
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