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When three AgResearch scientists started work on improving the quality of cheese, they discovered something else altogether - how to detect hidden explosives.
The scientists found that the x-ray technology they used to determine the different compounds in cheese could also screen check-in and carry-on aircraft baggage for concealed explosives and their liquid components.
Announcing the findings yesterday, the Government-owned agricultural research body said it was in talks with a local venture capital firm and planned to start a company to commercialise the research.
The technology - a "world first" - needed about $2 million to $3 million of investment and a further 18 months of intensive development, AgResearch chief executive Dr Andy West said.
So far the crown research institute - the country's largest - has put between $600,000 and $1 million of its own money into the project.
West said he could not identify the three scientists who had developed the technology "for security reasons".
He said the new technology could have a large international market in light of recent airline security scares.
He estimated about 70,000 airport baggage scanners were installed globally, and the installation of such equipment in public buildings such as court houses meant there was "a multi-million-dollar global market for the technology".
Again "for security reasons" West said he could not give details about the technology except that it involved "a series of complex algorithms that process x-ray data from a new generation of airport x-ray detectors".
Scientists are now trying to zero in on specific substances to remove the estimated 15 per cent "false positive" rate - when the technology mistakenly identifies an explosive.
AgResearch science and technology general manager Mark Ward said the technology would not x-ray people, but would enhance the current airport luggage-scanning systems.
West said it was too early to calculate potential earnings but the returns could be "substantial".
However, any returns would be invested back into science, he said.
"Obviously we want some money from this but ... AgResearch is driven by its public-good requirements and philosophy, not money."
Finnish scientific organisation Oxford Instruments Analytical Oy and several other British and US-based scientific outfits will work with AgResearch to develop the technology.
The work will be done at the AgResearch Ruakura Research Centre in Hamilton.
AgResearch has applied for nine patents so far.
