An Indian-origin researcher is leading a research team in Scotland to develop a testing kit, which will help save thousands of lives by detecting a host of fatal food-poisoning bugs in as little as five hours.

Dr Brajesh Singh says the device will be capable of dramatically reducing the detection time for food-borne diseases like E coli, campylobacter, listeria and salmonella from the current six days routinely required.

The device has already been tested successfully in the laboratories of the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, where Dr Singh works. Dr Singh hopes the new device may eventually be helpful in detecting human pathogens, including the killer MRSA bug.

"The conventional methods for detecting food contamination used by industries and regulatory agencies are labour-intensive, time-consuming and costly," said Dr Singh.

"Our technology offers simultaneous detection of multiple contaminants within five to eight hours at a low cost. It has the potential to revolutionise the food safety industry and save lives through prevention of food-poisoning epidemics," he added.

The new system will work by analysing DNA samples extracted from samples of food, water or soil. It will run a DNA sequence to discover the presence of bacteria.

Professor Hugh Pennington, Scotland's leading microbiologist, said, "If it's as good as it's cracked up to be, it will be extremely valuable. Particularly with MRSA, the sooner you get a result, the better."