UHT milk recalls are costly, and damaging to dairy product brands
suited for markets where access to fresh milk is limited or consumers are used to and prefer UHT products. Unfortunately, UHT processing of raw milk does not always mean a long shelf-life. Dairy processing companies may not achieve the shelf-life they aspire to, and consumers may find UHT milk spoils before its use by date. From time to time, these companies may even need to recall their UHT products from supermarket shelves. It’s a costly and brand-damaging exercise.
Detecting the cause of milk spoilage early is challenging
Proteases are enzymes in raw milk that lead to milk spoilage, but UHT processing does not fully inactivate them. The only way to eliminate UHT milk spoilage is to prevent raw milk with unacceptable levels of proteases from entering production. However, detecting proteases in raw milk is time-consuming and has never been capable of being deployed at dairy production sites. Enter PPB Technology’s CYBERTONGUE® desktop-based analytical platform – a product poised to tackle the US $5.5B Dairy testing market.
CYBERTONGUE® – a novel biosensor technology developed by the CSIRO – measures protease activity on-site within 15 minutes
Dr Stephen Trowell and his CSIRO colleagues developed a first-to-world, patented biomolecule-based sensing platform. Stephen founded PPB Technology to commercialise this CYBERTONGUE® Technology for a variety of food testing applications. The focus of their Accelerating Commercialisation project is to develop the test device and reagents, initially to be used for protease detection at dairy processing sites, where raw milk is delivered by tankers.
Early trials of CYBERTONGUE are the keys to commercial success
PPB Technology’s Accelerating Commercialisation project will see early trials take place with dairy processing companies who are keen to validate the on-site technical performance of the CYBERTONGUE platform. PPB Technology also aims to create the foundations for future test development in partnership with these companies. The $400,000 matching funds contribution from Accelerating Commercialisation supports a strong team to take a game-changing product into a market where challenging raw material quality control problems persist.
We can’t wait to see what’s next for this team as they re-shape the dairy and broader USD $42B food testing space!
