Application of Omics Technologies and Computational Approaches for Control of Foodborne Pathogens in Foods

Abstract

Control of Foodborne Pathogens is an important health-related quality of life topic due to the global burden of foodborne pathogen diseases. The strategies to destroy or control of foodborne pathogens probably starts with the recognition and avoidance of foodborne pathogens that are naturally present in our environment. The foodborne illness could be caused by pathogen itself (e.g. viruses, bacteria, parasites, prions) or biological toxins directly produced by microorganisms in the food; such foods become unsafe for human consumption. The newly emerging or evolving pathogens, along with relatively low minimum infectious doses and/or infection with multidrug resistant pathogens have been increasingly reported and is a new challenge. Control of Foodborne Pathogens need to be closely monitored at various stages throughout the complex food supply chain: food production, food processing, and food consumption. For monitoring of contaminant levels of foodborne pathogens, one must adhere to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, an official systematic approach of identifying, evaluating and controlling food safety hazards, including biological foodborne pathogens. The importance of HACCP principles in contributing to protecting our food supply has been recognized by food safety professionals since the 1970s. In this chapter, HACCP principles were followed, discussing traditional and recent advances in some basic concepts and terminology which can be reasonably used for detection and control of foodborne pathogens. The traditional computational approaches mainly rely on information systems, data management, surveillance networking, predictive and computational modeling; whereas the modern computational approaches integrate multiple molecular features of foodborne pathogens and other innovative technologies, including omics technologies.