Dicyandiamide Contamination detected in Infant Formula

A study combining VideometerLab multispectral imaging with chemometrics enables rapid and non-destructive detection of dicyandiamide (DCD) in infant formula powder.

What is Dicyandiamide?

The substance is on the list of Hazardous substances, as it can be detrimental to the human body. It can cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Even the smell of it can result in irritation. The substance is a white powder that can be easily confused with powered food such as powdered milk or infant formula powder. Furthermore, it is not easy to detect contamination of DCD, as for the human naked eye, the physical features are almost indistinguishable.

How to detect food contamination?

Spectral imaging combined with machine learning allows fast and accurate assessment of food. A new study shows how Videometer technology can be used to detect dicyandiamide (DCD) contamination in infant formula powder. It has been shown that it is possible to uncover adulterated samples even when the adulteration is in a small percentage ratio.

As a result of several food safety scares, this article presents a very relevant rapid and non-destructive detection method of dicyandiamide (DCD) in infant formula powder. By combining VideometerLab multispectral imaging with chemometrics, the analysis is able to di?erentiate unadulterated infant formula powder from samples containing 0.01% DCD with no misclassi?cation.

References

Liu, C., Liu, W., Yang, J., Chen, Y., & Zheng, L. (2016). Non-destructive detection of dicyandiamide in infant formula powder using multi-spectral imaging coupled with chemometrics. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 97(7), 2094–2099.