New MIT Sensor With Silk Microneedles Detects Contamination and Spoilage – Interesting Engineering

Engineers from MIT came up with a sensor resembling a velcro strip in shape that can pierce through the plastic packaging of foodstuffs to sample for bacterial contamination and spoilage. The device pierces the packaging and the food via silk microneedles that suck in material through capillary action.
Once the microneedles made of edible proteins from silk pierce through the food, the tiny holes on the needles draw fluid towards the back of the sensor. This is where the analysis occurs. There …

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