h-ALO · Project

Portable Sensor Detects Pesticides, Bacteria and Heavy Metals in Food On-Site

foodPilotedTRL 6

Imagine a handheld device — almost like a smartphone accessory — that can tell you within minutes whether your milk, honey, or beer is contaminated with pesticides, heavy metals, or dangerous bacteria. Right now, food producers have to send samples to expensive labs and wait days for results. The h-ALO team built a portable photonic sensor that concentrates trace contaminants from food samples and detects multiple hazards at once, right at the farm or shop. It connects to your phone and uploads results to the cloud, so you get a live safety map of your entire supply chain.

By the numbers

EUR 4,239,432

EU funding for development

consortium partners

countries involved (DE, IT, NL, PL, SE)

SMEs in the consortium

45%

industry partner ratio

total project deliverables

real food chains tested (aquaponics, craft beer, raw milk, organic honey)

The business problem

What needed solving

Food producers and retailers currently depend on expensive, slow laboratory testing to check for pesticides, heavy metals, and bacterial contamination — results can take days, during which unsafe products may already be sold or spoil. Small producers like craft breweries, raw milk farms, and honey producers often cannot afford frequent lab testing at all, leaving them exposed to safety incidents and regulatory risk.

The solution

What was built

A portable photonic sensor prototype with integrated optoelectronic and plasmonic components, capable of detecting multiple contaminants (pesticides, heavy metals, micro-organisms) simultaneously. The demo deliverable confirms a mechanically fabricated protective system for the functional prototype with electrical circuitry, tested for handling convenience.

Audience

Who needs this

Craft breweries and small beverage producers needing affordable contamination testingRaw milk and dairy farms requiring rapid on-site pathogen detectionOrganic honey producers verifying pesticide-free claimsSupermarket quality assurance teams checking incoming fresh produceHACCP consultants looking for portable verification tools

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Food Production & Processing

SME

Target: Small and mid-size food producers (dairy, honey, craft beverages)

If you are a craft brewery or raw milk producer dealing with costly lab testing and days-long wait times for contamination results — this project developed a portable photonic sensor that detects pesticides, heavy metals, and microorganisms simultaneously on-site. It was demonstrated in aquaponics, craft beer, raw milk, and organic honey chains, meaning it was designed for exactly your kind of operation.

Food Retail & Distribution

mid-size

Target: Supermarket chains and fresh-produce distributors with incoming goods inspection

If you are a food retailer dealing with supplier quality uncertainty and recall risk — this sensor lets non-expert staff run rapid multi-contaminant checks at the loading dock. The device connects to mobile phones and cloud-based data management, giving you a distributed, anonymous monitoring system along the entire farm-to-fork chain without needing a lab.

Food Safety Consulting & HACCP Services

any

Target: HACCP consultants and food safety auditing firms

If you are a food safety consultancy helping clients maintain HACCP compliance — this project produced a prototype that was integrated into an HACCP manual for on-site demonstration. Offering clients a rapid, portable testing option alongside traditional lab analysis could differentiate your services and reduce the turnaround time for critical control point verification.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would this sensor cost compared to traditional lab testing?

The project data does not specify a unit price for the sensor. However, the design emphasis on miniaturization, organic/hybrid photonic components, and smartphone connectivity suggests a target price point well below laboratory-grade equipment. A business case discussion with the consortium would clarify per-test and per-device economics.

Can this scale to high-throughput industrial food processing lines?

The current prototype is designed for portable, on-site use by farmers, retailers, and non-expert operators — not for inline industrial automation. Scaling to high-throughput processing would require further engineering. The consortium includes 5 industry partners and 5 SMEs across 5 countries, which provides a foundation for commercialization partnerships.

Who owns the IP and how can I license this technology?

The project was coordinated by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy under an EU Research and Innovation Action (RIA). IP from RIA projects typically stays with the consortium partners who generated it. Licensing discussions would need to go through CNR and the relevant technology-developing partners.

What contaminants can it actually detect?

According to the project objectives, the sensor provides multiplex-analyte recognition covering both microbiological and chemical contaminants — specifically pesticides, antiparasitic compounds, heavy metals, and micro-organisms. This multi-hazard capability in a single portable device is what sets it apart from single-analyte field test kits.

Has it been tested in real food production environments?

Yes. The objective states that the prototype was demonstrated on-site in small selected agri-food chains including aquaponics, craft beer, raw milk, and organic honey. A demo deliverable confirms the fabrication and testing of a portable integrated sensor with protective housing and electrical circuitry.

Does it meet food safety regulations like HACCP?

The project explicitly aimed to introduce the sensor into an HACCP manual, which means the team worked on aligning its use with established food safety management procedures. Formal regulatory certification (e.g., ISO 22000) would still need to be pursued for commercial deployment.

Consortium

Who built it

The h-ALO consortium is well-balanced for moving from lab to market: 11 partners across 5 European countries (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden), with a 45% industry ratio and 5 SMEs actively involved. This is not a purely academic exercise — nearly half the team comes from industry, which means the sensor was designed with real production constraints in mind. The coordinator, Italy's CNR (National Research Council), is one of Europe's largest public research organizations, giving the project strong scientific credibility. The mix of 4 research institutes and 5 industrial partners suggests the technology has already been shaped by commercial feedback during development.

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHECoordinator · IT
INNOSIEVE DIAGNOSTICS BVparticipant · NL
THE CIRCLE SOCIETA AGRICOLA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATAparticipant · IT
ISTITUTO ZOOPROFILATTICO SPERIMENTALE DELLE VENEZIEparticipant · IT
7BULLS.COM SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIAparticipant · PL
RISE RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF SWEDEN ABparticipant · SE
CONFEDERAZIONE GENERALE DELL AGRICOLTURA ITALIANAparticipant · IT
PLASMORE SRLparticipant · IT
STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCHparticipant · NL
TINEXTA INNOVATION HUB S.P.A.participant · IT

How to reach the team

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy — contact via project website or CORDIS contact form

Order a report on this consortium See CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want an introduction to the h-ALO team to discuss licensing, pilot testing, or integration into your food safety workflow? SciTransfer can arrange a direct meeting with the right consortium partner for your needs.

Order a report on this topic More in Food & Agriculture