Finsbury Food Group is testing technology used in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden to improve its cakes.

Lightbody, a subsidiary of the firm, has hooked up with boffins at Strathclyde University and will be using hyperspectral imaging to inspect its cakes.

Hyperspectral imaging captures the entire light spectrum and helps to decipher the chemical makeup of the things surveyed. US troops had it mounted on helicopters when they attacked the compound in which Bin Laden was finally found.

Using the camera and complex mathematics, researchers can then predict the shelf-life of cakes.

Ian Chree, director at Lightbody’s Hamilton site, told The Grocer: “We could potentially allocate a numerical value to the cake eating quality over life. This analysis could prove invaluable.”