A portable biosensor system for bacterial concentration measurements in cow's raw milk

Bacterial detection is of primary importance in many fields, such as food and environmental monitoring. Measurements of bacterial concentration are traditionally carried out by means of the Standard Plate Count technique, a reliable method for microbial screening that, however, features long response time and is carried out by qualified personnel in microbiology laboratories. The impedance technique for bacterial concentration detection represents a method very competitive with Standard Plate Count in terms of response time (3-12 hours vs. 24-72 hours) as well as for the possibility to be realized in automatic form. This paper presents an embedded portable biosensor system for the measurement of bacterial concentration in cow's raw milk. The possibility to perform measurements “on the field”, hence without the need to ship samples to distant laboratories, and to transmit the data on wireless communication systems or on the Internet represents a substantial advantage in terms of time and cost, thus making the presented system an important tool for in-situ bacterial screening.