KAIST "Fake Baby Formula 'Bunbyeol', Easily Detectable with Smartphone"

Fake infant formula is a serious issue that threatens the lives of infants and young children. The series of fake infant formula scandals that erupted in China during the 2010s sparked global outrage and anxiety. This was due to side effects such as developmental disorders and excessive skull enlargement observed in infants who consumed fake formula.

The repercussions were not limited to China alone. The anxiety of "what if" was a very real concern among parents with young children. To alleviate this anxiety, a system capable of quickly and accurately detecting fake infant formula using a smartphone has been developed domestically.

KAIST announced on the 2nd that a research team led by Professor Han Jun from the Department of Computer Science, in collaboration with Yonsei University, POSTECH, and the National University of Singapore, has developed a technology for detecting fake infant formula using smartphones.

The joint research team is taking a commemorative photo after receiving the '2024 Best Paper Award' at ACM MobiSys. Photo by KAIST

The technology developed by the joint research team is based on the ‘PowDew’ system, which detects fake powder using a standard camera installed on a smartphone. This system utilizes the unique physical properties (such as wettability and porosity) determined by the ingredients and manufacturing process of powdered foods, as well as their interaction with liquids.

Consumers can easily verify the authenticity of infant formula by observing the movement of water droplets dropped on the powdered formula using their smartphone camera through this system.

According to the joint research team, experiments conducted on six different infant formula brands successfully detected fake formula with up to 96.1% accuracy.

The joint research team expects that the developed technology can be expanded and applied to other food products and pharmaceuticals beyond infant formula in the future.

This will enable consumers, distributors, and government agencies to easily verify the authenticity of products such as infant formula, facilitating efficient and safe product distribution.

Professor Han Jun said, “We hope that the technology developed by the joint research team will be used as an easy-to-use inspection tool for consumers, contributing to the reduction of counterfeit powdered foods circulating in the market. The joint research team will continue to expand the applicable areas of this technology and take the lead in solving counterfeit product issues.”

Meanwhile, this research was conducted with support from the Mid-Career Researcher Support Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea.

The joint research team received the ‘2024 Best Paper Award’ at the ACM MobiSys, an international conference recognized as the highest authority in the field of mobile computing, in recognition of their research achievements.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.