The Future of Food Safety Testing

Culture-free pathogen testing, multiplexing, and leveraging genome sequencing and the power of bioinformatics are some trends that will shape the future of food labs, according to Stan Bailey, Director of Scientific Affairs for bioMérieux.

By Sangita Viswanathan

With an estimated 47.8 million of illnesses caused each year due to foodborne pathogens, resulting nearly

128,000 hospitalizations and 3000 deaths, pathogen testing is the biggest driver of food safety testing. So what will the future of food safety testing look like? 

J. Stan Bailey, PhD., Director Scientific Affairs at bioMérieux was trying to look at a crystal ball to predict some trends. 

“Culture-free pathogen detection would gain in prominence, as would multiplex detection. Genome sequencing of pathogens and the resulting bioinformation will play a big role in people trying to understand and use ways to find that data in the next five to 10 years. There will be quantum leaps made in the diagnostic world as a result,” Bailey described, speaking at Food Safety Tech’s Food Labs Conference organized in Chicago earlier this week. 

Real-time testing with the use of biosensors, and inline process inline process control measurement would also pick up. All the information that’s collected will create the demand for smarter IT solutions for microbiology, Bailey added. 

Biggest complaints

Worldwide, labs are facing the same challenges. Every lab is being asked to do more with less resources, Bailey explained. 

“Labs are working with more samples, requiring more analyses, and getting more data. At the same time they facing tight resources. They can be efficient only with automation as it can result in lower labor costs, improved efficiency, improved consistency and reduced cost of non-quality with less opportunity for error or inconsistent interpretation of results,” he explained. 

What do you need in an ideal testing method? Bailey had some recommendations. The test method must be:

• Accurate: produce sensitive and specific results; 
• Easy to use, factoring in variable skill level for technical staff: if it’s too complicated to use, you aren’t going to get a lot of use in the market; 
• Timely: anything that’s test and hold, you need to have quick turnaround time; the challenge for diagnostic companies and consumers of those tests is as we are driving the testing time down, we are pushing the limits of what that technology can do; 
• Hardware needs to be reliable, and this has been an area where we have seen lots of issues in the past; 
• Connectible to LIMS, allowing for direct uploading of information into a computer or LIMS; and 
• Cost-effective. 

Bailey also commented about some broad directions that food safety testing regulation and technologies may play in the future. He posed the following scenarios to the audience:

• Will regulatory agencies move to accepting virulence screens without cultural conformation? 
• What about epidemiological investigations? 
• What role will sequencing play in the future? 
• Will regulations drive method development or will method development drive regulations (citing the STEC regulations as an example)?