QUICK LINKS Today's News News releases ISU homepage NEWS RELEASE 06-12-02 Contacts: Jake Petrich, Chemistry, (515) 294-9422 Mark Rasmussen, Animal Science, (515) 663-7350 Bridget Bailey, News Service, (515) 294-6881 PROFESSORS RECEIVE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AWARD FOR FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION DEVICE AMES, Iowa -- A food safety inspection device, developed at Iowa State University, has won a national award. Jake Petrich, Iowa State professor of chemistry; Mark Rasmussen, assistant professor of animal science and research microbiologist for the USDA's National Animal Disease Control Center in Ames; and Tom Casey also of the USDA NADC received a Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. The group developed a spectroscopic technology for detecting fecal contaminants on animal carcasses. The device is a non-contact spectroscopic apparatus that stimulates fluorescent emission from meat in order to inspect it for markers of food-borne pathogens, specifically feces. The technology has proven more effective than visual inspection methods because it removes subjectivity from the inspection process, and it can detect contamination on almost any size cut of meat. -30- Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111 Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu Copyright © 1995-2002, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.