Got Milk? Got contaminants?

Guarding the nation's food supply has always been a major concern; however, in today's age of international terrorism, it is even more important.

Take milk, for example. Because of the short "cow-to-consumer timeline", milk could easily become contaminated and affect a large number of people before it is detected (2). With over 176.9 billion pounds of milk produced in 2005 (1), or approximately 22 billion gallons that's a big risk!

Fortunately, Dr. David Beebe at University of Wisconsin-Madison has a solution: inexpensive "labs-on-a-chip" that can detect contaminants in milk. With their small size and inexpensive cost of manufacturing, Dr. Beebe and the Department of Homeland Defense hope that these micro-labs can be incorporated into packaging to detect common contaminants.

So once again, thanks to technology and biomedical engineering, you can have your milk and drink it too! Got Milk?

(1) http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/commodity/livestock/dairy/organicdairyprofile.htm

(2) http://www.bmes.org/WhitakerArchives/news/beebe.html