LIGHT! 003 | Photonics revolutionise the food industry

SECPHO
OVERVIEW
Photonic solutions
for the food industry
Photonics has become such a broad and diverse science
and set of technologies that we find it in practically
all sectors of our economy, such as beauty, safety,
and transport, among others. In Spain, one of the fundamental
pillars of the economy is the food industry
which, being able to provide higher level products, has
undergone several revolutions throughout history:
from the development of techniques for better preservation
of food to its packaging, through improvements
in quality controls, or systems that determine the optimum
time for harvesting, to name but a few examples.
The next revolution in the food industry has been
brewing for a few years, when photonics was incorporated
as a key element at all levels, and nowadays the
future of this sector cannot be imagined without technologies
based on light. Light control allows us to gain
access to a material’s diverse physical properties in a
precise, rapid and continuous way, which makes it an
ideal instrument for measuring the quality and composition
of food. In addition, monitoring elements such
as cameras, hyperspectral, thermal or spatial sensors,
including their combination with new technologies
such as artificial vision or deep learning, are becoming
practically essential for food production and improving
food safety. The underlying concept with all these
advances is to design efficient systems that help us to
monitor both the quality of the product and its production
in an objective and quantitative way.
One of the earlier technologies that has emerged as
a cornerstone in this new revolution in the food industry
is hyperspectral sensors. While the human
eye is able to see a colour image in three bands (blue,
green and red) ranging from around 400 to 700 nanometres,
hyperspectral sensors are capable of dividing
the spectrum into many more bands and using a
wider spectrum. As each material has its own spectral
fingerprint, this technology can distinguish between
different foods, know when a food is off or when it
contains traces of elements that are harmful to health.
For example, in the field of agriculture, hyperspectral
sensors provide insight into the water levels of a plant
or if it has a type of parasite that requires a specific
treatment, while serving to determine soil health, the
point of ripeness of fruit and vegetables, and to detect
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