The Western Growers Science team has been working on applied research projects in the produce industry. Most recently, we have worked to evaluate a new technology, the CytoQuant (Romer Labs), on its utility as an additional tool to monitor food contact surface cleanliness and cleaning programs.

CytoQuant is a mobile flow cytometer unit that measures intact microbial cells in as little as 30s. New technologies offer opportunities to improve risk mitigation and monitoring programs.

In coming months, we will be looking to evaluate how approaches and protocols for food safety risk in produce food safety can be augmented and improved. Interested in trying out new technologies in the wild? We are actively building new applied research projects – helping technology companies complete real-world trials and offering the produce industry a chance to redesign monitoring and mitigation solutions in real-world activities.