New Pathogen Tests Trigger Food Safety Innovations
Tanya
Roberts
De Wood, digital colorization by Stephen Ausmus,
USDA/ARS
In November 2005, USDA’s
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) began
using a rapid, highly sensitive testing system to
detect the deadly O157 strain of E. coli
in raw beef. This BAX® system, based on identifying
a pathogen’s DNA fragments, had already proved
successful in screening for two other disease-causing
microorganisms—Salmonella and Listeria—in
raw and ready-to-eat meat and poultry products and
pasteurized egg products. Such technological advances
in the science of pathogen testing are changing
the economics of food safety. The increased demand
for pathogen testing that began in the early 1990s
is being matched by an increased supply of sophisticated
testing systems. Information provided by these tests
has enabled the food industry to improve food production
systems and the safety of food.
Both food companies and government regulators have
recognized the need for more extensive pathogen
testing. Foodborne disease outbreaks, such as the
1993 E. coli O157 outbreak that killed
four children, prompted some meat retailers to demand
that their suppliers meet pathogen testing requirements.
In 1994, FSIS determined that any amount of E.
coli O157 in ground beef adulterated the product,
and, under the 1996 Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point systems, FSIS requires companies
that produce raw meat and poultry products to test
the products for generic E. coli and Salmonella.
In response to increased demand,
the supply and quality of pathogen tests have changed
significantly. Since 2000, modern biotechnology
and bioinformatics have revolutionized the sensitivity
and accuracy of pathogen tests. New tests deliver
results that are more comprehensive, sensitive,
and accurate in a shorter time (1-2 days instead
of 3-5 days or weeks) and at lower cost. A leading
U.S. testing company, Silliker, Inc., reports a
threefold jump in demand for pathogen screening
by North American food companies in the last decade,
with DNA-based tests, such as the polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) test, replacing older pathogen-culturing
and immunological tests.
As a result of these developments
in testing technologies, food companies have more
information about where pathogens enter, grow, and
hide in the food supply chain. These advances are
in turn spurring innovation in other food safety
technologies from farm to fork. With more accurate
and more timely information on pathogen contamination,
food producers can more easily identify the technologies
that are working as well as weak spots in the safety-control
system.
Food
Safety Innovations in the United States: Evidence
from the Meat Industry, by Elise Golan,
Tanya Roberts, Elisabete Salay, Julie Caswell, Michael
Ollinger, and Danna Moore, AER-831, USDA, Economic
Research Service, April 2004.
"New
Pathogen Testing Technologies and the Market for
Food Safety Information," in AgBioForum,
by Laurian Unnevehr, Tanya Roberts, and Carl Custer
(2004) Vol. 7, No. 4, Article 7.
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