There is an Unmet Market Need for a Rapid, Accurate and Cost Effective Diagnostic Test
Current tests are costly, time consuming and complex and there is a pressing need for rapid, accurate and cost effective diagnostic tests. There are considerable financial risks to meat-processors and case-ready packers if their product needs to be recalled and as testing standards and consumer expectations increase the industry will need a test that will guarantee food safety without affecting production schedules and profits.
The issue for processors is how to implement these more thorough testing requirements in real time without affecting their production schedules. Currently there is no rapid testing procedure available for any stage of beef, poultry, pork or seafood processing and testing at slaughterhouses and meat packers are also limited because of the cost of testing.
Diagnostic testing at slaughterhouses is centered on testing mostly for the top two bacterial infections: E.coli and Salmonella; Campylobacter, a bacterium associated with handling or eating undercooked poultry is also a major concern.
Current laboratory tests used in the food safety sector are both expensive as well as time consuming. Most tests incur a cost for the microbial test itself plus overhead costs for each test. The tests also require sophisticated laboratory facilities and highly trained microbiologists.
Testing Procedures:
Testing for bacterial infections in meat consists of two steps.
- Incubate and enrich the meat sample in order to induce the growth of any bacteria that is present into a sufficient enough quantity to be detected.
- Analyze the enriched sample to determine if it is infected with bacteria.
It currently takes up to 72 hours to achieve E.coli test results, due mainly to the time it takes to increase the bacterial count to the point where it can be detected. This time lag results in the processed product being available for sale at consumer retail outlets before the test results are known resulting in significant implications for companies and industry bodies at all levels of the food processing and development chain.