New Technologies in

Food Safety

ASCLS-WI State Convention

April 8, 2010
Stevens Point, WI

Dr. Roy, Radcliff, Director, Marshfield Food Safety

Chief Scientific Officer, Marshfield Food Safety, LLC
The Importance of Food Testing

 In 1999 CDC estimated:

 76 million new cases of food-related
illness per year (1 out of every 4 people)
 325,000 hospitalizations
 5000 deaths
 Produce Safety Project (2010)
 Estimated health related expenses from
foodborne illness to be between $102
and $151 billion per year.
 The Importance of Food Testing
 Government Accountability Office (1999)
 Federal government spent $1 billion
 State governments spent $300 million
On food safety efforts (probably more today)

 No way to estimate dollars spent by food companies

(testing, interventions, process improvements).
The Ideal Pathogen Test
 Clinical Perspective
 Robust
 Works in all types of food matrices
 Sensitive
 Able to detect a single organism
 100 % accurate
 No false positives or negative
The Ideal Pathogen Test
 Laboratory Perspective
 Robust
 Sensitive
 100 % accurate

 Easy to use
The Ideal Pathogen Test
 Producers perspective
 Robust
 Sensitive
 100 % accurate
 Easy to use

 Fast
 Product has a shelf life
 Cheap
 Adds to cost of production
Components of a Pathogen Test

 The Sample
 Setup
 Enrichment
 Analysis
Components of a Pathogen Test

 The Sample
 Should represent the lot
 Random
 Representative
 Frequency
 Size
Components of a Pathogen Test

 Setup
 Should not injure target pathogen
 Pre-warmed media
 Should maintain sample integrity.
 Temperature abuse
 Cross contamination
Components of a Pathogen Test

 Enrichment
 Should be optimal for target pathogen
 media
 temperature
 time
Components of a Pathogen Test

 Analysis
 Detection of the target pathogen
 Accurate
 Specific
 Sensitive

 Robust
Areas to apply new technologies

 Sample
 Setup
 Enrichment
 Analysis
The Sample

 Sampling Statistics
 Not really a technology

 Sampling Devices
 Various sponges and spongesicles
 Pneumatic samplers
 Combo Trim Sampler
The Sample
 Combo Trim Sampler
 Must sample surface tissue
 Must represent the lot
 Must collect a large enough sample

 N60 Sampling
 Collect 60 surface cores 1” diameter and ¼” thick
 Produces approximately 325 to 425 g sample

 New device
 Basically a coring tool that acts like a cheese grater
 Able to sample entire depth of combo
Setup
 Geared toward labor saving
 Automated systems
 TEMPO from Biomerieux
 Gemini from BioControl
Enrichment

 Proprietary medias
 Optimizing growth rates
 Special additives to enhance growth
 Selective for specific pathogens

 Take advantage of unique biochemical

reaction
 Differentiation during confirmations
Analysis

 Immuno-magnetic Concentration
 Flowcytometry
 Phage assays
 Membrane conductance
 Laser spectrometry
Immuno-magnetic concentration

 Magnetic beads
 Coated with antibodies
 Used to capture and concentrate
 Pathatrix
 Dynal
 BioControl GDS
Immuno-magnetic concentration

 Pros
 Allows testing of large volume
 Concentrates target organism
 Decreased enrichment time
Immuno-magnetic concentration

 Cons
 Added expense
 Added complexity
Flow cytometry

 Some chemistry to “tag” the cells

 Surface antigen
 Cytoplasmic protein
 DNA or RNA sequence
 Passes single cells through a laser
 Counts the cells with the correct tag
Flow cytometry

 Pros.
 Theoretical ability to detect a single cell
 Can be very specific
 Able to distinguish dead from live cells
Flow cytometry
Cons
Sample has to very clean
Debris can cause huge interference
How do you get a single pathogen cell
out of sample
Enrichment negates quantitative
potential
Phage assays
 Use live phages for detection
 Typically has a period to propagate
target pathogen
 Phages are added and allowed to
propagate
 Detection of the phage
Phage assays

 Pros
 Phages are very specific to their host
 Phages propagate faster than bacteria
 Phages only propagate in live cells
Phage assay

 Cons
 Potential contamination of primary
enrichment and the lab.
 Recombinant tail fibers
 Used only to identify target cells
Membrane conductance

 Thin membrane coated with antibodies

 Cells are captured by the antibodies
 As cells are captured conductance
changes
Membrane conductance

 Pros
 Good sensitivity
 Can test large volume
 Can be inexpensive
Membrane conductance

 Cons
 Only as specific as the capture
 Interfering compounds
 Closely related organisms
Laser spectrometry

 Cells are hit with a laser

 Different proteins on the cell surface
scatter the laser
 Cells can be identified based on the
laser scatter pattern
Laser spectrometry

 Pros
 Based on surface antigens
 Can differentiate serotypes/subspecies
 Comparable to PFGE
 Rapid
 Inexpensive
Laser spectrometry

 Cons
 Specific preparation
 Mainly a typing tool not detection
Summary

 Technological advances have been

made in all aspects of food testing

 One thing that has made the most

impact?
 The Computer!!
Summary

 New technologies are typically more

expensive
 Takes a long time to demonstrate
robustness
 Food testing industry is slow to adopt
new technologies