Scientists find early contaminant detection system for Maltese ġbejna

A project financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology has developed a non-contact approach for the early detection of microbial contaminants in ġbejna responsible for food spoilage.

The project involved a collaboration between the Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics, the Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Malta, and Farm Fresh Ltd, and received €195,000.

Early detection in the processing chain allow for immediate action to prevent contaminated batches from moving further down the production and distribution line and reaching the end customer.

The ġbejna, which forms an integral part of the Maltese food heritage, is made from sheep or goat milk curds and aged for several months to develop its distinctive taste. During the ageing process, the cheese can become spoiled by fungi and unsafe for human consumption.

But conventional microbiology techniques may involve lengthy analysis procedures for the detection of these slow-growing un-pigmented fungi, allowing occasional distribution of contaminated products.

To test this hypothesis, a model cheeselet was produced by Farm Fresh limited and challenged with fungal strains isolated from commercial ġbejna.

Dr Owen Falzon, senior lecturer at the Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics in the University of Malta said the FIHI project consortium investigated the use of a hyperspectral imaging to assess the characteristics of food products at different spectral bands.

“These images can be considered as a fingerprint that characterises the composition of the object being analysed… through the automated processing and analysis of the hyperspectral data, this system can help identify contaminated products while reducing time and effort for food sample inspection.”

Typical tests currently in use for the analysis of milk products rely on lengthy procedures that can last from 24 to 36 hours for bacterial analysis, and 7 to 8 days for fungal analysis. Alternative methods such as rapid genomic subtyping may be faster but are very costly for SMEs not running their own Research and Development department, while the efficacy of methods such as infrared spectroscopy can be limited if the presence of water is above specific thresholds.

Minister for Research, Innovation and the Co-ordination of Post Covid-19 Strategy Owen Bonnici said the project highlights the great importance of investment in R&I in order to generate economic wealth.

“The importance of the formation of consortia between public and private entities was highlighted here,” he said, stressing that knowledge transfer was achieved in both directions within a consortium which is crucial to concretising research to deliver solutions to challenges faced, not only within science, but within economic growth and competitive impact.

Executive chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando that through FUSION, the MCST provides support on two levels - guidance and mentoring of the technological feasibility on market-readiness and economic impact; and financial support for enable collaborative and translational research activities.