[ti:Trying to Improve Food Safety With a Camera] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Agriculture Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:02.99]Agriculture Report. [00:05.48]Europe's deadly outbreak [00:08.47]of a rare form of E. coli bacteria [00:11.75]has brought new attention [00:13.99]to food safety issues. [00:16.23]One of the problems when people [00:19.03]get sick from food is that [00:21.78]the simplest question [00:23.12]is often difficult [00:24.76]or even impossible to answer. [00:28.19]Just what did the people eat [00:31.15]that made them sick? [00:32.84]Of course, one way to avoid [00:36.40]these medical mysteries is [00:38.88]to keep dangerous organisms [00:40.58]out of the food supply. [00:43.06]This is easier said than done, [00:46.20]but scientists keep [00:48.44]looking for new ways. [00:50.53]Scientists in the United States [00:54.32]have developed an experimental system [00:57.71]that uses a high-tech optical scanner. [01:01.70]The inspection system [01:04.38]is meant for packing houses [01:06.28]where produce is sorted for market. [01:09.56]The system is designed [01:12.20]to identify the presence [01:15.23]of contaminants like soil [01:17.47]or animal waste on fresh produce. [01:21.00]These can be sources [01:23.54]of Escherichia coli, [01:26.24]better known as E. coli. [01:29.07]E. coli bacteria naturally live [01:32.66]in the intestines of humans [01:34.60]and many animals. [01:36.79]Most kinds of E. coli are harmless [01:40.22]but some can make people sick. [01:42.87]The new scanner can also [01:45.61]show damage and imperfections [01:47.87]that might make the produce [01:50.20]unappealing to shoppers. [01:52.10]Scientists designed the system [01:54.83]at a Department of Agriculture [01:57.28]research center [01:58.87]in Beltsville, Maryland. [02:00.91]Moon Kim of the Agricultural [02:04.81]Research Service led the team. [02:07.05]MOON KIM: "We were requested, [02:08.49]we were asked, to develop a method [02:10.73]to detect contamination in produce. [02:13.76]So we started with the apple [02:15.32]as the model sample." [02:17.21]The scanner uses a high-speed camera [02:20.75]placed over the conveyer belt [02:23.19]that moves the produce along. [02:25.63]As the apples move along the belt, [02:29.36]the scanner captures images [02:32.04]of each piece of fruit. [02:34.24]The system is equipped [02:36.92]with an ultraviolet lamp [02:38.62]and a halogen lamp that [02:41.75]produces near-infrared light. [02:44.10]A spectrograph device can use [02:46.94]the near-infrared light [02:49.04]bouncing off an apple [02:50.53]to show evidence of damage. [02:53.02]The ultraviolet light [02:55.81]can show contaminants. [02:57.30]Moon Kim says the team [03:00.34]hopes the system [03:01.40]will be available before long. [03:03.89]MOON KIM: "We are targeting [03:05.43]for development in commercial plants [03:09.78]for the next several years." [03:11.87]The scanner can direct [03:13.66]a sorting machine to separate [03:16.50]the bad apples from the good ones. [03:19.91]The system is currently able to [03:23.25]show the surface of only [03:25.19]half the apple as it speeds by. [03:28.17]The inventers hope to improve [03:31.72]the process so it can [03:34.16]show the whole surface. [03:36.49]And that's the VOA Special English [03:40.72]Agriculture Report, [03:42.76]written by Jerilyn Watson. [03:45.15]You can watch captioned videos [03:47.89]of our reports at the VOA [03:51.17]Learning English channel [03:53.06]on YouTube. [03:54.40]I'm Bob Doughty.