Low-cost embedded system for detection of e.coli bacteria in meat

Necessity of meat quality evaluation has become important in the present scenario. Meat and meat products are potential vehicles of pathogens that cause hazards to human beings. The methods for freshness and quality assessment of meat can be chemical, sensory and spectroscopy and has several advantages and disadvantages. Need for a non-destrctive method has led to colour and computer image analysis, NIR Spectroscopy, Electronic nose, ultrasound, X-Ray imaging and bio-sensors. These methods, however it is subjective, laborious, time-consuming and inconsistent and can be expensive due to the requirement of specific instrumentation. Here, a low cost microscopic image processing technique is used to determine the presence of Ecoli in the meat. Automatic detection of e.coli bacteria in the meat sample would lead to a great reduction on the laboratorian visual stress as well as to an improvement on the quality control process. Database preparations are carried out using the biological slide preparations and captured using a microscopic camera. Obtained microscopic images undergoes through image processing techniques. The system is implemented using Raspberry pi B+ board, and the system is handyless time consuming and easy to use.