US: Researchers develop a faster, cheaper way to detect Salmonella
Food Safety News: Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a highly sensitive, cost-effective technology for bacterial pathogen screening of air, soil, water, and produce in as little as 24 hours.
According to lead researcher Ezra Orlofsky, Ph.D., of BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, “Rapid and reliable pathogen detection in field samples is critical for public health, security and environmental monitoring. Current methods used in food, water or clinical applications rely on labor- and time-intensive culturing techniques, while activities such as dairy farming, wastewater and runoff treatment necessitates real-time monitoring of pathogens in environment samples.”
The study, published online in the September 2015 issue of the journal Water, Air & Soil Pollution, defines an accurate, inexpensive, high-throughput, and rapid alternative for screening of pathogens from various environmental samples, including tomatoes.