KUALA LUMPUR:The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) yesterday launched four innovative biotechnology products that can detect antibiotic, chemical, biotoxin and bacterial residues in agricultural products.

Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the products are ‘Antibiotic Sensor Kit’, ‘Malachite Green Sensor Kit’, ‘Algae Bloom Biotoxin Sensor Kit’ and ‘Foodborne Pathogen Test Kit’.

The ‘Antibiotic Sensor Kit’ is capable of detecting antibiotic residue in farming and aquaculture industries while the ‘Malachite Green Sensor Kit’ can detect harmful anti-fungal chemicals used to treat parasites and fungi in fish.

The ‘Algae Bloom Biotoxin Sensor Kit’ can spot microalgae and biotoxin that cause pollution to seawater and poisoning to shellfish while the ‘Foodborne Pathogen Test Kit’ is a rapid bacteria detection kit capable of identifying food bacteria such as E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria which cause diarrhoea, vomiting and fever and also death.

The kits, developed by MARDI through a five-year research, are equipped with Android-based mobile biosensor device with 4G network, GPS and mobile application for field detection.

Speaking to reporters after launching the four products today, he said the detection kits were user-friendly, cost-effective and time-saving, needing just 48 hours for pollution detection analysis compared to conventional culture method which could take up to six days.

Kiandee said MARDI’s innovation could ease food safety monitoring and evaluation activities to prevent, detect and manage the risk of foodborne diseases.

-- BERNAMA