SCUT’s Professor Sun Dawen and his team have developed a  fast and non-destructive testing technology that helps Chinese enterprises  ensure food safety and quality.

Agricultural production in China with regard to vegetables, fruits, meat,  and aquatic products had been long troubled by lacking an efficient and low-cost  approach for quality analysis and control that can perform quickly without  compromising the product.

To solve this dilemma, food engineers of SCUT and their partners  have formulated a fast and non-destructive testing method to assess the quality  of farm produce using spectral imaging techniques. Apparatus based on this  technology has been used in production lines nationwide, helping enterprises to  elevate their effectiveness and safety level when monitoring agricultural  production.

The project, jointly completed by SCUT, Zhejiang University and Ningxia  University, was recently announced to be a winner of the 2016 Science and  Technology Progress Awards for Institutions of Higher Learning, issued by the  Chinese Ministry of Education. The research was led by SCUT’s Professor Sun  Dawen, who is also Member of the Academy of Europe and Member of the Royal Irish  Academy.

A professional committee including members of the Chinese Academy of  Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, in their assessment statement,  believed that the technology has reached a “world-leading level”, in particular  concerning its performances in monitoring and controlling the growth of  vegetables and fruits, monitoring fish freshness, and testing meat quality via  online systems.

The technology, granted 30 invention patents, was detailed in book  publications and dozens of papers published in premier academic journals. Online  testing equipments developed based on it were delivered for use in factories in  Hunan, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Ningxia provinces, creating 832 million yuan of  sales in the last three years.

Source from the Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering of SCUT

Translated and edited by Xu Peimu

From the SCUT News  Network