Prof. Dr. Alaa Karim Naima)m, the instructor at the Department of Food Sciences, College of Agriculture at University of Basrah, in cooperation with a research team composed of assistant teacher Walaa Sabry Rahim, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Abdullah Merdas, and assistant Prof. Dr. Hussein Aliwi from the University of Babylon obtained a patent issued by the Ministry of Planning/Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control for the design and implementation of an electronic system for the detection of agricultural pesticide residues in raw milk.
The patent included the design and implementation of an electronic system based on the electrical conductivity of chemical compounds to detect pesticide residues in raw milk. It used a set of wireless sensors such as the temperature sensor, the acid function sensor, and the dissolved solids in liquids measurement sensor. These sensors were controlled using a microcontroller and artificial intelligence based on artificial neural networks, and they were trained to diagnose and distinguish between different types of pesticide residues in raw milk.
It is one of the quick, easy, and low-cost methods, as the concentrations of pesticide residues, which are estimated at parts per million for each of bifenthrin and cypermethrin glyphosate, were detected, and they were identical to the quantities obtained when detected by high-performance liquid chromatography and gas-mass chromatography.
