With millions of Europeans estimated to contract Campylobacter each year – and chickens and chicken meat potentially accounting for up to 30% of cases – new technology that combines photonics (the science of light) with artificial intelligence could help food producers detect harmful bacteria and toxins, improve animal welfare, and reduce food waste before products reach consumers.
The new Sensor4Food project is developing five advanced photonic sensing technologies to detect contamination, disease and quality issues at critical points across the poultry supply chain in real time – helping to make food safer, production more efficient and supplies more sustainable.
Campylobacter is the most frequently reported foodborne illness in the EU, but EFSA estimates that the true number of infections could be close to nine million every year. Chickens and chicken meat may directly account for 20–30% of human cases, with eating undercooked chicken – or food contaminated through contact with raw chicken – the most common source of infection.
“Europe’s poultry system moves at extraordinary speed, processing up to 20,000 chickens per facility per day, yet our safety checks still rely on lagging, analogue methods,” said David Oliva, Head of Cognitive Technologies at Turku University of Applied Sciences and principal investigator of Sensor4Food. “Taking a handful of random samples from a truck and waiting a day for a lab report create a significant blind spot. Our ambition is to replace some of those blind spots with much more comprehensive, real-time information.”
At one poultry producer involved in the project, animal feed is currently checked by taking samples at selected points from each truckload. The samples are sent for laboratory analysis, and the results can take around a day. Sensor4Food will investigate whether photonic sensing could instead analyze the feed continuously as the truck is unloaded – potentially moving from random sampling to monitoring almost the entire load.
Improving Animal Welfare Monitoring
Beyond food safety, Sensor4Food will investigate whether data gathered across the poultry production chain can provide new insights into animal welfare. Researchers will combine information on environmental and transport conditions with photonic analysis of the meat, exploring whether measurable quality issues can be traced back to conditions experienced by birds during growth and transportation. The aim is to identify patterns that could help producers improve both animal welfare and meat quality.
“Consumers increasingly want assurance that animals have been raised and transported responsibly. By combining real-time information about growing and transport conditions with photonic analysis of the meat, we can investigate how conditions experienced by the birds relate to subsequent quality and welfare indicators. That could ultimately help producers identify what needs to change and improve conditions for millions of birds.”
“Photonics allows us to see what conventional inspection methods cannot. By analyzing how light interacts with biological materials, we can identify risks earlier and with greater precision, without slowing food production. This technology has the potential to transform not only food safety but also the way Europe monitors and manages its entire food system."
Sensor4Food will scale five independent photonic technologies, spanning mid-infrared sensing, silicon-photonics biosensing, hyperspectral imaging, radio-frequency sensing, and ultrasound, from laboratory validation (TRL 4) to live industrial deployment (TRL 7). An advanced AI layer will fuse these photonic streams with real-time data on the environment, acoustics, transport, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Digital ID (For Chickens)
The team plans to investigate whether the vast volumes of data generated across the supply chain could ultimately be consolidated into a digital “poultry passport”. The ambition is to link information on where birds were raised, feed quality, environmental conditions, transport, welfare and processing into a continuous record. Researchers will explore how far this traceability can extend – potentially even to individual birds or products.
The project will also explore how photonics could help reduce waste. In Norway, researchers will use mid-infrared sensing to assess the quality of proteins recovered from poultry side streams, potentially helping to turn lower-value processing by-products into higher-value ingredients.
Crucially, the project also reflects a broader European push for technological sovereignty. “This is a fundamental push for European technological sovereignty,” Oliva added. “Europe should not depend on foreign sensing systems to guarantee the safety of its food supply. We are building infrastructure, engineered by European expertise, that is sophisticated enough to be exported directly to the United States, China, and other global markets.”
Coordinated by the Turku University of Applied Sciences, the project runs until February 2030. It brings together leading universities, research institutes, technology developers, and AVEC, the voice of the European poultry sector.