One of the great technologies developed under the He-Farm project to improve safety and health is the Portable System for Measuring Microbiological Metabolic Activity (PSMMM).
Its goal is to detect and measure microbiological activity in different environments. Originally developed by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Budapest, the system is now being adapted to become fully portable — easy to carry and ready to help protect farms and animal shelters.

Conventional microbiological methods, such as Petri dish cultivation, face important limitations: they often require long incubation times and offer little information about the actual physiological state of microbial cells. The PSMMM solves this efficiently and reliably, using the principle of oxidation processes that lead to environmental reduction. As microorganisms consume oxygen and produce reducing compounds, it’s easier to detect their presence and activity.

Key advantages of the system include:
• A simple, user-friendly measurement technique
• Compatibility with standard culture media
• Ability to infer microbial group characteristics from the redox curve shape
• A wide detection range (from 100 to 10⁸ CFU) — no need for sample dilution

The system has already been adapted for field testing, allowing for fast and reliable contamination assessment of air, surfaces, and water — all within minutes.