Preliminary investigation into heavy metal detection in offal using Raman Spectroscopy
09 September 2024
Focus area: Food safety
Program stream: Growth and global competitiveness
Project number: 2023-1012
Current methods for monitoring heavy metal concentrations such as cadmium in livers are laboratory-based methods which are slow, resource-intensive, and costly for processors as they require the product to be held until the results are known. Therefore, there was an industry need to explore alternative options that could test products on plants.
As part of the trials, livers were taken from beef cattle from low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk postcodes and sampled for laboratory measurements. The problem could not be validated through the project as sufficient samples above the level of detection were not found. The findings are being considered.