Scientists at a university in Canada are believed to have come up with a dipstick test that can, in less than five minutes, identify any traces of pesticides in food and beverages. The scientists have also claimed that the test would be particularly useful in developing nations and areas without access to modern equipment due to its low-cost, simple procedure and immediate result time.
John D. Brennan, chemist and chemical biologist at McMaster University in Canada who conducted the research with colleagues, noted that existing tests for detecting pesticides rely on expensive and complex equipment, taking hours to produce results. Their paper-strip test is more practical than the conventional tests, producing results within minutes rather than hours by means of an easy-to-read colour-change, an American Chemical Society (ACS) release said.
These findings were published in the November issue of the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.