Tracing food packaging contamination: an electronic nose applied to leftover food

ABSTRACT

The use of former food products (FFPs) as alternative feed ingredients in farm animal diets has several benefits. In fact, FFPs are a way of converting losses from the food industry into ingredients for the feed industry. FFPs are produced from packaged food and in general, they are recognised as safe. Packaging materials are not accepted as a feed ingredient according to Regulation (EC) No 767/2009, which imposes a rigorous evaluation of possible residues. A sensitive and objective detection method is therefore essential for an effective risk evaluation. Six FFP samples were subjected to electronic nose analysis. Each sample was assessed under three conditions: as-received, cleaned and experimentally-spiked. Packaging remnants were also quantified using a stereomicroscope. Data were analysed via principal component analysis using SPSS software. Although the stereomicroscopy analysis showed a low content of packaging remnants in as-received samples, the electronic nose was able to differentiate between cleaned, as-received and spiked samples. However, this method was not effective when different FFPs were analysed together. In the view of the limitations of this method, it can be concluded that the electronic nose can be considered an objective and sensitive method for the detection of packaging remnants in FFPs composed of the same matrix.

KEYWORDS:

• Ex-food
• safety
• electronic sensing
• alternative feed ingredients

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thanks Dr. Cynthya Marcela Guerra for her help in analysing the samples. This study was supported by SUSTAINABLE ANIMAL NUTRITION (SUN) progetti bilaterali di Grande Rilevanza Italia Serbia 2019-2020, funded by Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale [SUSTAINABLE ANIMAL NUTRITION (SUN) progetti bilate].