Analyze chemical make-up of ingredients and food. Can a tiny spectrometer be useful for cooks?

I came across a Kickstarter projected launched by an Israeli
venture company. They have made a tiny spectrometer for the consumer market.

Intrigued I pledged to buy one. But the
lingering question is how useful will it be for me as a hobby cook? Should I
pull out?

The main application I envision is the ability to
analyze produce and food for properties and qualities. Heston Blumenthal search for a
potato with a certain starch level springs to mind. The potato application alone
would certainly not justify the $200 price tag for me! A guy on the Scio forum
asked if it could analyze the content of sous vide pouches for doneness i.e.
collagen break down. It is supposedly capable of measuring alcohol content to 1%
ABV accuracy. I don't know how useful that is but it is certainly fun.

Copy paste from their campaign:

Out of the box, when you get your SCiO, you'll be able to analyze food, plants, and medications.

For example, you can:

Get nutritional facts about different kinds of food: salad dressings, sauces, fruits, cheeses, and much more.
See how ripe an Avocado is, through the peel!
Find out the quality of your cooking oil.
Know the well being of your plants.
Analyze soil or hydroponic solutions.
Authenticate medications or supplements.
Upload and tag the spectrum of any material on Earth to our database. Even yourself !

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Comments

Brendan_Lee_56950

that's pretty cool stuff right there. I could see it being useful if you were developing products and needed to know the nutritional contents for labelling purposes or in fermentation applications where knowing the sugar and alcohol content is important.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I was thinking about getting in on that, I think it looks amazingly cool.

I'd love to take that to my daughters school. I also think it'd help a ton

in healthy eating, condiment development and whatnot else.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I think it is one of those things that once it is in the market, the potential will be discovered for those of us that work/play in kitchens.

Apps can be developed that make it useful for those with allergies - yes this product has nuts, or shellfish, or gluten with the ppm amount.

I can see a use for it for those that cook for at risk people. It will be handy when shopping/taking delivery of product.

I can also see purveyors getting a bit wary as the consumer can pull out a cheap pocketable device that can verify the purveyor's claims.

Jack_Mayer_85396

That thing looks really cool! Any of y'all go in on it yet?

Brendan_Lee_56950

Your last point is something that can't come soon enough. I am sick of people creating names to sell inferior products

Tim_Roth_78505

I think its usefulness will depend a lot on its sensitivity. Getting ABV within 1% doesn't actually sound terribly great on paper - and I'd be curious to see exactly how it calculates things like "calories" from spectrometry data. That said, it may be highly accurate for certain types of applications. I guess it's really hard to say given that it hasn't launched yet. I'd definitely be inclined to wait for some reviews before investing, though - especially since it's already achieved its goal in such a short time span.

Leonard_13847

I think, for sure, a real spectrometer could be useful for a cook. My concern is that a tiny one will not sensitive enough.

Before committing one should read this critical article from Cnet:

http://www.cnet.com/news/kickstarter-science-beware-the-marketing-hype/

As mentioned, I have pledged, but I do share Cnet's concern.

@Tim Sutherland - It cannot be used as a reliable allergen detector. It only scans one spot to a few millimeters depth and cannot detect only traces.