An App That Can Help Prevent Food Poisoning! [SCIENCE]

Ever spent money on a fantastic meal, only to barf it (and anything else in your stomach) up later? And THEN you start to feel like crap. Fun!

Food poisoning is the weight-loss plan that you never want(ed). And now there's an app that could help prevent eating contaminated food!

Yay!

Previously -- on "Reality" -- it would take up to 24 hours of bacterial growth for a sample to be big enough to test.

Food scientists (my favorite!) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (where Richard Gere went to on a gymnastics scholarship!) have developed a technique involving a smartphone, an app, and a $30 microscope attachment. The technique can give you results in 30 minutes.

SCIENCE!

Simply dip a chemically-coated chip into contaminated water for half an hour, use the attachment and check out the horrid things lurking in the water.

SCIENCE!

Uses include commercial and residential kitchens, as well as testing drinking water after natural disasters.

Unfortunately, the technique can't tell if the bacteria is harmful (pathogenic) or not. But this is a fantastic first step towards a useful and inexpensive tool to save us some regurgitating.

H/T: NPR