Abstract
Food pathogens frequently cause foodborne diseases. There is a need to rapidly identify the source of the bacteria in order to contain their spread and epidemics. A pre-enrichment culture or a direct culture on agar plate are standard microbiological methods. In this review, we present an update on alternative molecular methods to nucleic acid-based detection for species identification. Biosensor-based methods rely on the recognition of antigen targets or receptors by antibodies, aptamers or high-affinity ligands. The captured antigens may be then directly or indirectly detected through an antibody or high-affinity and high-specificity recognition molecule. Various different detection methods are discussed, from label-free sensors and immunosensors to fluorescence-based ones. Each method shows advantages and disadvantages in terms of equipment, sensitivity, simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Finally, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices are introduced briefly, with the potential to be fast, sensitive and useful for on-site bacteria detection in food processing laboratories to check potential contamination by sample monitoring combined with a rapid pre-enrichment step.
Highlights
Numerous cases of foodborne illness among humans are caused by pathogens delivered with foods
Other bacterial species, such as Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus anthracis, the enterohemorrhagic strains of Escherichia coli O103:H25, O26, O111, O115, O128, O145 and the recently isolated O104:H4 harboring an antibiotic resistance plasmid, Staphylococcus aureus strains coding for thermostable enterotoxins, Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens, Yersinia enterocolitica, Vibrio spp., Aeromonas spp., Shigella spp. and Mycobacterium bovis, viruses and protozoa are transmitted through food consumption [1]
Biosensor devices for pathogen detection generally consist of several elements, including a biological capture molecule, a labelled antibody interacting with the bacteria captured from the solution and a signal detection system
Summary
Numerous cases of foodborne illness among humans are caused by pathogens delivered with foods. Two identification methods can be applied in food safety based on ISO certification: plating and counting on selective agar and real-time PCR with dedicated DNA extraction kits (Bio-Rad) applied to bacteria from enrichment broths at 24 or 48 h of incubation. This molecular method has proven to be sensitive enough to detect 10 to 100 bacteria (from volumes up to 50 mL when combined with immunomagnetic separation) [4,5,6]. Many biosensor-based methods are still labor-intensive, expensive, and not implementable for in-field applications
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