Chemical and Materials Engineering professors Anastasia Elias and Dominic Sauvageau are giving a free public talk on their research developing smart materials that can warn you if meat your are buying has gone bad. The talk is part of the Engineering Expo being held 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex on the UAlberta campus.
Edmonton–Have you ever worried about getting Salmonella or E. coli poisoning from meat?
Two engineering professors who are developing new “smart” labels to protect consumers from food-borne pathogens like E. coli are giving a free public talk on food safety at Engineering Expo Sept. 26.
Entitled Stopping Hamburger Disease on the Shelf: Engineering New Smart Materials for Food Safety, the talk will give a general overview of “smart” materials and how they can aid in food safety.
Anastasia Elias and Dominic Sauvageau, professors in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering are developing smart materials to detect harmful microbes that cause food-borne illnesses before products reach consumers.
“Agriculture and food production is the second-largest industrial sector in Alberta and our smart materials will increase food safety and save time and money when testing for spoilage,” Elias said.
There are many stages of food processing from the packaging facility, to transport to stores, to the consumers’ refrigerators where contaminants can affect products such as meat. The new smart materials for food packaging will increase the safety in food production.
“The current swab-test method used for food contamination requires specialized personnel and equipment and takes a long time to get the results,” Sauvageau explains. “With the smart materials, food suppliers and even consumers will instantly be able to see if a product has been contaminated just by looking at the colour of the packaging.”
The talk is part of Engineering Expo, an open-house style event offering tours of engineering teaching and research labs, interactive displays from various engineering disciplines and opportunities to meet with students and professors and find out what engineering is all about.
Visit the Engineering Expo site now to learn more!