Adaptation of an enrichment-free Listeria diagnostic to food matrices

Abstract Foodborne illnesses devastate the gastrointestinal microflora of millions of Americans each yearoften resulting in dysbiosis and increase risk of other diseasesnamely irritable bowel syndromekidney failurepancreatitis and diabetesFurthermorediabetics are at increased risk of developing a foodborne illnessand they often take longer to recoverEach yearinpeople in the U Sare sickened by foodborne pathogensInthere werelaboratory confirmed infectionshospitalizations anddeaths attributed to themajor pathogens transmitted commonly through foodListeria is the one of the most serious offenderswith ahospitalization rate and amortality rateThe impact on healthcarebusiness and industry is no less pronouncedresulting in annual costs of $to $billionincluding direct medical costs and value of time lost to illnessMoreoverthe cost of keeping food safe from Listeria contamination was estimated to range between $$billionContaminated food is the cause of these illnesseshaving entered the public supply due to a lack of detection at a manufacturing packaging plantdistribution warehouse or retail locationCurrent tests are inadequate because they require a prolonged enrichment step to reduce the likelihood of false negatives and false positivesThis enrichment causes tremendous delays in providing actionable results to the food processorwho are left with one of two choicesStore the products until the test result comes backresulting in olderlower quality foodor shipping the food before receiving test resultsputting the consuming public at increased riskSampleis developing the world s first enrichment free foodborne pathogen detection systemDETECT L is a rapid screening assay that detects a single Listeria sppcell on environmental surfaces in less than one work shiftlt hSamples proprietary Bioillumination Platform enables this expeditious turnaroundenabling food manufacturers and packagers to quickly and accurately detect and remediate contaminated environmental surfacesand solely retain product that is at risk of contaminationHoweverfood can become contaminated internally during productionshippingor in wholesale and retail environments downstream in the supply chainIt is of vital importance to develop a second testing modality that assays the foodstuff as rapidly and sensitively as DETECT L does for environmental surfacesTo this endthe proposed Phase II study will continue the work begun in Phase I to adapt the DETECT L assay for finished product testingFirstthe researchers will expand the number of Listeria strains toNextassay development will be completed for the six foods begun in Phase Iplusmore foodsFinallySamplewill develop high throughput methods so that food manufacturers and packagers can test multiple food samples at a time for efficiency