As consumer demand for fresh fruits and vegetables (F&V) continues to increase, so does the risk of microbiological and chemical contamination. Currently, inspections for F&V are carried out at the production site or the food processing facility, based also on regulatory requirements. In most cases these are inspections of random batches using laboratory techniques, which may require up to two or more days before getting results. The time and cost per analysis leads to reduced checks and thus, elevated risks, even in countries with very efficient control mechanisms. Furthermore, such analysis cannot take place in all parts of the value chain (due to time requirements, but also due to associated cost), including supermarkets or restaurants, which are critical points since this is where the consumer will get the products from. GRACED considers the aforementioned need and the limitations of current techniques and proposes a novel solution for contaminants detection in all stages of the F&V industry value chains. The heart of the proposed solution is a novel plasmo-photonic bimodal interferometric sensor, combined with low cost on-chip light generation, capable of simultaneously and quickly detecting different analytes of interest. The sensor will be part of holistic, modular solution that exploits unique engineering designs, IoT concepts and advanced data analytics, for the early detection of contaminations in the F&V value chains. The approach will be validated in different production & distribution systems: a) a conventional farming system in open-air farms and the follow-up steps of food processing for preparing cooked meals and frozen vegetable packages, b) a novel, urban farming ecosystem, producing F&V locally and using them in in-situ restaurants, c) a short value chain based on agro-ecology and direct distribution from farmers to consumers & restaurants, d) a semi-automatic farm producing mushrooms and distributing them to supermarkets & wholesalers.

The increased population density in modern animal production systems has made them vulnerable to various transboundary infectious agents & diseases. During the last decades in the developed world, a reduction in the direct burden of livestock diseases has been observed, because of more effective drugs & vaccines. However, the total impact may actually be increasing, because in a highly-interconnected world, the effects of diseases extend far beyond animal sickness & mortality. Therefore, early diagnosis and establishment of reliable countermeasures to infectious disease outbreaks is essential to limit severe biophysical and socio-economic consequences. To date, the time between initial disease outbreak and laboratory confirmation of the etiologic infectious agent can be up to several weeks. Reliable & simple diagnostic testing directly on site would enable rapid local decision making, which is crucial to prevent further spreading of the disease. Silicon-based Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) have been demonstrated as a powerful platform for biosensing systems. In combination with integrated monoclonal antibodies, they can provide portable multiplex detection of proteins with sensitivity & specificity previously not realized. SWINOSTICS addresses the sector needs, by developing a novel field diagnostic device, based on advanced, proven, bio-sensing technologies to tackle viruses causing epidemics in swine farms and leading to relevant economic damages, complying to the objectives of the STAR-IDAZ. The diagnostic device will allow threat assessment at the farm level, with the analytical quality of commercial laboratories. The device will be developed for a panel of 6 important swine diseases. The device will be portable & will provide results in 10 minutes for 5 samples simultaneously, making it highly suitable for field use. It is based on 3 lab-verified concepts: a) PIC technology, b) Label-free optical detection, c) patented nano-deposition technology.

The aim of the I-Cuvette project is the development of a portable device based on biosensors capable of analytical quality to assess milk contamination at the first step of the collection logistics chain (farm,) with a favorable market price for the single analysis (comprising six target analytes: 5 different antibiotics in milk including: Beta-lactam, Quinolones, Tetracycline, Sulphonamide, Aminoglycoside; plus Aflatoxins). This will spare the transportation of contaminated milk. The I-Cuvette system may be used also at the delivery point of trucks collecting milk providing almost immediate results (10 minutes) and avoiding the need of laboratory confirmation tests in case of positive results. I-Cuvette will be developed by: - ISS BioSense (ISS) a new high-tech SME located in Naples, Italy created in 2008 whose mission is the use and the manipulation of molecules of biological origin to develop highly specific and sensitive sensors. - Kontor46 (K46) is an Italian private company established in Turin in 2012 and specialized in high-tech hardware and software developments, as well as in R&D services for the industry. In the dairy industry, milk contamination can happen at any stage of the production chain from the farm to the shelf. The conventional methods of analysis used for milk allow a thorough analysis with very sensitive Limits of Detection, but with the main disadvantages of requiring specialized staff, being time-consuming and expensive, finally, they need to be performed in a lab structure. The analytical performance of I-Cuvette, thanks to the use of biosensors, is better than the conventional methods used in the milk sector, with greater operational potential due to sensitivity, selectivity, reliability, portability, no sample pre-treatment, short time to results and low cost. In short, I-Cuvette combines analytical quality with short response time and cost similar to strips or other disposable fast tests.