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Hyderabad, June — A team of researchers at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, has developed PestiSafe, a portable, affordable device that enables rapid on-site detection and differentiation of pesticide residues in food and water samples. This innovation significantly reduces dependence on expensive, time-consuming laboratory testing and empowers food safety inspectors, farmers, and consumers with faster, reliable decisions.
Dual-Mode Technology for High Reliability
PestiSafe integrates two independent optical sensing methods into a single handheld platform. This dual-mode architecture allows cross-verification of results, minimizing false positives common in single-signal sensors.
Key performance highlights:
- Detects pesticide residues at very low concentrations.
- Achieves excellent recovery accuracies ranging from 92% to 107% in real-world samples (unhulled rice, cucumber, and tap water).
- Results show strong agreement with conventional LC-MS/MS laboratory methods.
- Uses chemometric and machine-learning tools to differentiate between pesticide classes.
The device can be connected to a smartphone, delivering instant results via a dedicated mobile app. Fabrication cost is estimated at just ₹7,000, making it highly scalable for widespread field use.
“Pesticide contamination remains a major food-safety concern, particularly in agricultural fields. Our goal was to develop a practical and affordable platform capable of delivering reliable pesticide analysis directly at the point of need — whether in agricultural fields, food markets, or household kitchens.”— Prof. Satish Kumar Dubey, Lead Investigator
Positive Impact on Farming, Food Production & the Poultry Sector
PestiSafe marks a game-changing advancement for Indian agriculture and food safety. By enabling real-time, on-the-spot testing, it will help farmers:
- Quickly verify the safety of water sources and feed ingredients before use.
- Reduce crop losses and input wastage through informed decisions.
- Strengthen compliance with food safety regulations and export standards.
Special relevance to the poultry sector: Poultry birds are highly sensitive to pesticide contamination in drinking water, feed, and the farm environment. Residues can affect bird health, productivity, egg quality, and meat safety — ultimately impacting consumer trust and farm profitability.
With PestiSafe, poultry farmers and integrators can now:
- Routinely screen water and feed supplies on-site.
- Minimize risks of hidden contamination.
- Enhance biosecurity and produce safer, residue-compliant poultry products.
- Support sustainable and responsible farming practices aligned with global standards.
“By integrating two independent optical detection modes into a single device, we have improved confidence in field measurements while maintaining affordability and ease of use.”— K.S. Deepak, Lead Researcher
Prof. Sanket Goel, Co-Principal Investigator, highlighted that the dual-mode design provides internal validation, offering greater reliability for field deployment.
Empowering Safer Poultry Production with PestiSafe
Itstrengthens the foundation of safe and sustainable poultry production. This low-cost, smartphone-enabled tool has the potential to become a valuable asset for poultry farms, feed mills, and quality control teams across India — helping our industry deliver safer protein to millions while protecting farmer livelihoods.
The study has been published in the prestigious journal Microchemical Journal. The work was carried out at the MEMS and Molecular Electronics Laboratory at BITS Pilani Hyderabad, with support from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).
Compiled by Poultry India Media; Source: Deccan chronicle publishing