Current progress on innovative pest detection techniques for stored cereal grains and thereof powders

For stored grains and their powders, pest infestation has always been a knotty problem and thus comprises a serious threat to global food security. Obviously, timely, rapid and accurate pest detection methods are of extreme importance to protect grains from pest mouth. In facing the defects of traditional methods, such as visual inspection, grain flotation and pest trap, diverse innovative approaches progressed fast alternatively, either targeting pest itself or diagnosing pest-induced changes. The former includes machine vision, metabolite analysis, pest-specific protein techniques, molecular techniques, bioacoustics analysis, conductive roller mill, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, while the latter consists of thermal imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging, impact acoustics analysis, soft X-ray imaging and tomography. The principle, operation procedure, pros and cons and application scenarios were discussed for each method. The results herein hope to promote the technical revolution of pest inspection in stored cereal grains and their powders.

Automated summary

Pest infestation poses a serious threat to global food security, and timely, rapid, and accurate detection methods are crucial for protecting grains. This article discusses various innovative approaches, including machine vision, molecular techniques, thermal imaging, and X-ray imaging, targeting the pests themselves or diagnosing pest-induced changes.