From the start of our project, we grounded each stage of our work in integrated human practices. Before advancing development, we actively sought input from key stakeholders who could provide valuable insight into factors that needed to be considered. This included collaborations with industry partners, public health experts, university laboratories, and educational communities. Each interaction centered around open-ended discussions about the potential impact and implications of our project. The feedback we received guided our decision-making, confirming some directions while prompting us to reevaluate and rethink others. These dialogues also allowed us to gain a nuanced understanding of the priorities and challenges faced by each stakeholder group: the economic and logistical pressures experienced by processors, the regulatory landscapes navigated by quality assurance teams, the clinical and epidemiological realities emphasized by public health researchers, and the communication and trust barriers uncovered through educational outreach.

Integrating human practices meant being willing to pivot. It is important to refine our design not just around theoretical goals, but around the actual needs of the communities and industries affected by Aflatoxin B1 contamination. This willingness to pivot transformed our project from a conceptual idea into a practical solution, ensuring that every design decision was informed by real-world feedback and grounded in social relevance. Through this depth of engagement, safeTEA evolved into a project that is not only scientifically innovative, but also socially responsive, community-centered, and feasible to implement in the real world.

Our educational outreach engaged diverse audiences to create bidirectional learning experiences that both refined safeTEA’s accessibility messaging and inspired the next generation of scientists to pursue careers in synthetic biology and bioengineering.

Our team visited the Martinelli’s facility in Watsonville, California, a well-known apple juice processing company. During the visit, we were introduced to patulin, a harmful and difficult-to-mitigate mycotoxin that can contaminate apples and their byproducts. We learned that patulin contamination not only presents serious food safety risks but also carries major financial consequences for stakeholders at every stage of the supply chain, from farmers and processors to distributors and consumers.

In our meeting with the head of Quality Assurance, we were guided through the entire production pathway, from apple harvest to juice processing. This tour highlighted where and how patulin contamination can occur, and revealed the limitations of current mitigation strategies since pasteurization cannot neutralize mycotoxins like patulin. Regulations therefore play a critical role, setting strict limits on allowable patulin levels in apple-based products, which highlighted to us that it was important for our project to operate in the current regulatory frameworks that are in place. Martinelli’s also explained how contaminated apples and byproducts impact not just juice production but also broader agricultural avenues, such as animal feed. This was our first look into how a single contamination point can ripple across multiple sectors of the food supply chain.

After learning about the industry’s established patulin detection and control methods, such as rigorous testing, filtration systems, and regulatory oversight, we shared with Martinelli’s our early ideas for new bioengineering approaches. We proposed concepts around enzymatic and non-enzymatic decontamination strategies and asked for their perspective on feasibility, flavor preservation, and production compatibility. Their feedback was invaluable: Martinelli’s explained that, while patulin is a challenge, it is relatively well controlled in apple juice production. They emphasized that the industry is more concerned about other mycotoxins, which are far more dangerous, less regulated in certain contexts, and more difficult to control with current tools.

This exchange was pivotal in shaping our project direction. With Martinelli’s insight, we realized that focusing solely on patulin would have limited impact, as the industry already has effective monitoring systems in place. Instead, we made the decision to pivot toward aflatoxin B1, a more prevalent and hazardous mycotoxin. At the same time, their input encouraged us to pursue a non-enzymatic route of decontamination, ensuring that our method would not risk altering the flavor, consistency, or marketability of other crop-derived products.

The visit also broadened our perspective: we began to see mycotoxin contamination not as an isolated issue confined to apples, but as a widespread food safety challenge across many agricultural sectors. This expanded scope reinforced the potential for our aptamer-based detection and filtration technology. With Martinelli’s feedback in mind, we refined our design to address not only the scientific challenge of binding and neutralizing toxins, but also the practical needs of processors, such as integration into existing workflows and cost efficiency.

Ultimately, Martinelli’s gave us much more than an understanding of patulin; they helped us situate our work within the real world context of agricultural processing. Their feedback guided us to focus on aflatoxin B1 while also highlighting the versatility and scalability of our approach. This engagement made clear that our project could serve multiple stakeholders across the agricultural value chain, with the potential to transform food safety protocols beyond apples and into a wide range of crops and industries.

RPAC: We went to Los Banos to learn about aflatoxin contamination firsthand, thank you RPAC Almonds for having us at your wonderful facility! We appreciate your willingness to lend us your time, guidance, and expertise! Real problems require real solutions! #iGEM2025 #safeTEA #FoodSafety #Partnership

RPAC Almonds takes part in the farming, hulling, shelling, and marketing of high-quality almonds all over the world. Our team got to experience almond processing firsthand when we visited their factory in Los Banos, California. We got to learn about every step of the production process, from growth, to filtration, byproduct usage, and exportation. They shared insights on the limits of the current mitigation methods to control aflatoxin levels, revealing how contamination risks impact both workers and consumers throughout agricultural product handling. They provided us tangible examples of how these issues could be addressed in their communities, which inspired our project. RPAC's feedback also revealed that production facilities are hesitant to integrate additional treatments beyond standard pasteurization. We also discussed how their byproducts get used and resold to local farmers for livestock feed, which revealed the dependency of livestock feed supply on agricultural byproducts.

This discovery about byproduct dependency exposed a critical weakness in the food supply chain that we could address, and fundamentally reshaped our project design philosophy. The realization about how contaminated agricultural byproducts directly impact livestock feed safety reinforced the importance of creating comprehensive solutions that address both primary products and byproducts. This insight influenced us to move forward and pursue a detoxification system that could protect multiple points in the agricultural value chain.

Through direct engagement with food processing professionals, we further identified critical gaps between laboratory solutions and real-world implementation, as well as key intervention points where we could apply our technology. After our visit, our team was able to pivot our project to have a dual purpose: one that can be used in both large-scale production facilities and small scale, at-home filtering. We gained a new perspective on the primary concerns and problems surrounding the food processing industry and the wide impact contamination can truly have. The visit highlighted the economic realities of food safety, where contamination affects not only consumer health but also worker safety, regional economies, international trade relationships, and the food supply chain in multiple different steps. Our solution has now evolved to address the full spectrum of stakeholders, from individual consumers to global supply chains.