Rapid Detection Methods for Food-Borne Pathogens

Food-borne disease is one of the most widespread problems throughout the world and is mainly caused by pathogenic bacteria. Detection of this microbial pathogen in food is the solution to the prevention and recognition of problems related to health and safety. Conventional and standard bacterial detection methods such as culture and colony counting methods may take up to few days to yield an answer. So in this prospect, researchers and food microbiologists are focusing towards the development and standardization of rapid methods. Recent advances in technology made detection and identification faster, more convenient, more sensitive and specific than conventional assays. The important developments in this area are the use of nucleic acid based assays and immunological methods for the detection of food-borne pathogens. The sensitivity of these methods has been significantly increased by the use of amplification techniques like polymerase chain reaction. Also many sensors were developed for the detection of food-borne pathogens with the goal to overcome problems associated with traditional microbiological detection techniques such as being time and labour intensive.