Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam and company GEN-IAL from Troisdorf have developed a polymer powder that significantly simplifies and shortens tests to detect beverage-spoiling organisms, such as bacteria and yeasts.
The company supplies breweries with analysis tools for quality control.
It takes two to three days to from the test to result.
Until recently, beer has been filtered in special equipment.
In this process, the bacteria remain on a membrane and are then elaborately cultivated in a special culture medium before they can be examined microscopically.
The new polymer powder replaces this process: the powder is added to the liquid sample, whose functionalized surface binds the bacteria efficiently.
The pathogens adhere to the 100 to 200 micron powder particles, which can be easily removed along with the microbes in a system and analyzed directly using various microbiological methods.
The time-consuming enrichment in a nutrient medium is no longer necessary.
Quality control of large quantities of beverages possible
With the new method, food experts can investigate beer and other beverages for infection by pathogens, which was hardly or not at all possible with the traditional membrane filtration method.
“Membrane filtration is not suitable for the quality control of beverages such as fruit juices, milk, cola and red wine. They contain so much solid or suspended matter that the filter clogs quickly,” explains Dr. Andreas Holländer, scientist at the IAP.
Breweries have also only been able to examine small sample volumes of up to one liter via membrane filtration.
With the polymer powder, tests with 30 liters or more are possible.
“Wherever a small amount of microbes has to be extracted from a large amount of liquid, the new technique can be useful,” adds Holländer.
“Through the use of the powder, food safety is increased, since it is more likely to find trace contaminants in large volumes of the beverages,” says Dr. Jutta Schönling, MD of Gen-IAL.
The equipment with which the surface of the powder particles is functionalized has been developed by Dr. Holländer and his team from the IAP.
It will now be used by the company GEN-IAL for the pilot production.
The launch is planned for 2015, and interested users will already be able to buy the powder in the spring of this year.
