Defense technology now applied in the food industry
MIT-Lincoln Laboratory research into rapid screening for anthrax and other dangerous pathogens has found its way into the food industry to detect both airborne and surface pathogens.
Remember the anthrax-tainted letters soon after 9/11? “Five Americans were killed, and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attacks in US history,” states the FBI article, Amerithrax or Anthrax Investigation. Postal workers suffered most of the consequences since they handled the tainted mail before anyone else. Something needed to be done—and fast—to find a way to quickly detect biological agents that could be sent through the mail or released into buildings.
The Department of Defense (DOD) secretly contracted researchers at MIT Labs to find detection solutions that were sensitive enough to spot killer bugs such as anthrax or ricin, and to spot them before people were exposed to them. In the same way consumers enjoy products that have come out of high-tech research for the military, this new technology has found its way into commercially available products that spot both airborne and surface bacteria, which are especially problematic to the food industry.