explains, “We made a conscious decision
to go for quick, non-destructive tests such
as NIRS [near infrared spectroscopy].”
Another reason for choosing NIRS, added
Dr. Haughey, is that “moisture,
proteins, and fat are routinely analyzed in the feed industry using
NIRS, and it is an accepted technique.” While the start-up phase
of the project was still underway
and required instrumentation was
being investigated, the Centre’s
director, Prof. Chris Elliott, and a
member of the food safety team
at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Michal Godula, met at a conference
and began discussing the work
that would be undertaken by the
Centre. The two immediately
determined that working together
would be mutually beneficial.
a particular contaminant,” he adds,
meaning that contaminants with similar
chemical structures are easy to distinguish.
NIRS alone. In this case, further laboratory analysis will be required for suspicious
samples. “Ultimately,” explains Tony
Locke, “NIRS may be used as a screening
tool while another technology will
be required for validation. This is
not uncommon when dealing with
chemical contaminants. Faster,
cheaper, and easier methods are
often utilized to do screening, while
more sophisticated technologies
and more intensive methodology
are required to achieve the desired
level of sensitivity.”
Thermo Scientific Antaris II FT-NIR Analyzer with a Sample
Cup Spinner accessory on the Integrating Sphere module
“The ASSET Centre’s plan was
particularly interesting to us because
they were looking into methods to detect
chemical contaminants with NIRS technol-
ogy,” comments Tony Locke, European Mar-
keting Manager for Molecular Spectroscopy
at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Traditionally,
NIRS has been utilized to measure quality pa-
rameters. What the ASSET group intended to
do would extend NIRS beyond conventional
analysis into food safety applications, and we
see this as an exciting advancement in the use
of the technology.”
The strategic aim of Dr. Haughey’s
research is to transfer such methods from
the laboratory to the field, giving food
inspectors, quality control specialists
and others a fast and reliable method for
screening incoming food and feeds. He
contends that his current NIRS method is
fairly good at identifying gross contami-
nation in feed samples, but he believes
that at very low concentrations these con-
taminants may be difficult to detect using
What’s in Store for the Future?
When asked about some of
the problems that face the feed
industry in the next few years, Dr.
Haughey explained that several
new sources of feed are growing in
popularity. The first is the increas-
ing use of dried grains left over
from the distilling industry, and the sec-
ond is the increasing use of seaweed. He
comments that these new feed materials
present new concerns for food safety
specialists and will need to be investigat-
ed. No doubt, Dr. Haughey will continue
to expand upon his experiences, and
may take on these new areas of research.
According to him, what he appreciates
most in his career at the University is
“the freedom to do whatever research
you think will take you forward.”
Early Observations
The Centre subsequently
acquired a Thermo Scientific
Antaris II Fourier transform
near-infrared (FT-NIR)
analyzer, and Dr. Haughey
immediately got to work
on some proof-of-concept
experiments. He added several closely-related organic
contaminants to dried, milled
samples of animal feed and
used the Antaris II to identify
and quantify these contaminants. “The Antaris II,” says
Dr. Haughey, “is extremely
simple to use, especially the
software that comes with
it.” In particular, he likes the
simple, built-in chemometric
model building routines and
finds the optional sample
cup spinner especially useful
for analyzing milled animal
feeds. “The NIR signals are
extremely good and you
can fingerprint a sample for
