Development of Point of Care Module for Remote Monitoring of Food Quality and Safety of Anganwadi Mid Day Meal

Abstract

Safe and nutritious food is essential for the growth of children. The government of India is providing a Mid-Day meal to children in government and government-aided schools with aim to provide one hot meal to reduce malnutrition. The quality and safety of the meal is important to ensure the benefits. The laboratory-based methods, although Gold Standard, are time-consuming and fails to provide real-time food parameters to ensure food safety and preventive actions. The food monitoring at the district, state level and central level is also a rigorous task through these manual methods. Hence, there is a need for an instrument which can provide real-time data of food parameters can ensure food safety and quality while food is served. Centralised monitoring of such data will ensure data collection and reporting of the benefits of the scheme. newlineA Point-Of-Care (POC) instrument is developed in this research work to monitor the food quality and safety parameters of the food prepared in large community kitchens. The POC module has sensors for temperature, pH and gas sensors for Alcohol, Methane, and Ammonia. A digital camera mounted on the module captures pictures of the food. The data provided by these sensors can together ascertain the quality and safety of the food. Experiments were conducted on common foods in Mid-Day Meal, Khichdi (rice and lentils cooked together with vegetables and spices), Dal-Rice (separately cooked rice and lentils), and Kheer (Milk, semolina and sugar cooked together) were studied just after cooking, after 6 hours, 12 hours and then every 12 hours for total 72 hours in all seasons in India. Changes in food in temperature, pH, appearance and emission of alcohol, methane and ammonia, and the spoilage markers during these periods were noted and analysed. The results showed significant differences in different seasons in India as temperature and humidity varied. newlineBased on the data collected, an algorithm is developed for Khichdi to report if the food is safe for consumption or not. The algorithm is use