Detection Of Foodborne Pathogens Research Articles

Locking-Fluorescence Signals Regulated CRISPR/Cas12a Biosensor Based on Metal-Organic Framework for Sensitive Detection of Salmonella typhimurium.

The efficient, sensitive, and rapid detection of Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) in food and food products is important to ensure food safety and health. This study developed a fluorescence biosensing assay that integrated recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) and CRISPR/Cas12a with a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8@fluorescein sodium (ZIF-8@FLS) nanocomposite for the sensitive detection of S. typhimurium. In this approach, using RAA as a preamplification module, CRISPR/Cas12a-AChE as a target recognition and dual-enzyme cascade amplification module, and the prepared ZIF-8@FLS with high porosity and rapid pH responsiveness as a fluorescence signal explosive amplification module, the RAA-CRISPR/Cas12a-ZIF-8@FLS biosensor was constructed. Under optimal conditions, it exhibited an excellent linear relationship for S. Typhimurium, with a sensitive detection limit as low as 1.3 × 102 CFU/mL and could complete sample detection within 2 h relying on the RAA and ZIF-8@FLS explosive fluorescence rapid response, demonstrating its significant advantages in specificity, sensitivity, and reliability in food-borne pathogens detection.

Fully Integrated Microfluidic Digital Chip for Simple and Highly Quantitative Detection of Norovirus.

The prevalence of foodborne illnesses is a significant global concern, resulting in numerous illnesses, deaths, and substantial economic losses annually. Traditional detection methods for foodborne pathogens are often slow, limited, and impractical for field use, underscoring the need for rapid, sensitive, and portable assays. Microfluidic technology has emerged as a promising solution for sample preparation, reaction, and detection on a small scale. Our study introduces a novel microfluidic digital loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay platform, which employs digital microfluidic chips for absolute quantitative analysis of nucleic acids. This portable chip utilizes LAMP technology to achieve ultrasensitive detection of target nucleic acids within 30 min and reduces the detection limit to 1 fM without the need for complex instrumentation. By digitizing amplification signals directly from the target sample, our platform offers simplicity, affordability, portability, and quantitative molecular readouts. This innovation represents a crucial step toward the on-site detection of foodborne pathogens, thereby enhancing food safety and mitigating disease outbreaks.

A polydopamine coated magnetic spiral switchable composite material for photothermal sterilization and dual-color fluorescence detection of food-borne pathogens

A polydopamine coated magnetic spiral switchable composite material for photothermal sterilization and dual-color fluorescence detection of food-borne pathogens

Probe-based dual-chip digital loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the simultaneous detection of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enteritidis in livestock and aquatic products

Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella are common pathogens causing foodborne diseases, posing a serious threat to food safety. Accurate detection of foodborne pathogens is particularly critical. This study developed a probe-based dual-chip digital loop-mediated isothermal amplification (cdLAMP) technique that enables the simultaneous detection of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella in food samples. The chip contains 20,000 wells, each with a micro-reaction unit volume of approximately 1 nL. The dual-detection is achieved through the dual-color fluorescence channel equipped on the imaging analyzer. Compared with qPCR, the cdLAMP demonstrates superior sensitivity. In the detection of pure cultures and spiked food samples, the detection limit of two foodborne pathogens is 2 CFU/mL. In the detection of field samples, it is capable of detecting single colonies of both pathogens. The dynamic detection range spans 5 logs. In conclusion, the probe-based cdLAMP technique emerges as a user-friendly tool for detecting foodborne pathogens, providing a powerful platform for food safety testing.

Recent Advances in CRISPR/Cas System-Based Biosensors for the Detection of Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms

Foodborne pathogens pose significant risks to food safety. Conventional biochemical detection techniques are facing a series of challenges. In recent years, with the gradual development of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) technology, CRISPR/Cas system-based biosensors, a newly emerging technology, have received much attention from researchers because of their supreme flexibility, sensitivity, and specificity. While numerous CRISPR-based biosensors have a broad application in the field of environmental monitoring, food safety, and point-of-care diagnosis, they remain in high demand to summarize recent advances in CRISPR/Cas system-based biosensors for foodborne pathogen detection. In this paper, we briefly classify and discuss the working principles of CRISPR/Cas systems with trans-cleavage activity in applications for the detection of foodborne pathogenic microorganisms. We highlight the current status, the unique feature of each CRISPR system and CRISPR-based biosensing platforms, and the integration of CRISPR-Cas with other techniques, concluding with a discussion of the advantages, disadvantages, and future directions.

Identification of Potential Biomarkers and Spectral Fingerprinting for Detection of Foodborne Pathogens in Raw Chicken Meat Matrix Using GCMS and FTIR.

Foodborne illnesses pose a serious threat to public health, with increasing global incidence rates driven by factors such as rising meat consumption. Rapid detection of foodborne pathogens in meat is critical for preventing outbreaks. This study investigates the potential of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for identifying biomarkers and spectral fingerprints indicative of foodborne pathogens in raw chicken meat. Raw broiler chicken meat samples were surface-sterilized and inoculated with foodborne pathogens. The samples were challenge inoculated with the specific pathogen and the physical quality parameters like pH, color, texture, drip loss, and water activity were assessed. GC-MS analysis identified 113 metabolites, including potential biomarkers like ureidopropionic acid, 5-sulfosalicylic acid, 11,14-eicosadienoic acid, methyl ester for E. coli O157:H7; 11-bromoundecanoic acid, neocurdione, glafenin, eicosanoic acid for Salmonella; azepan-1-yl-acetic acid, methyl ester, tramadol, cytarabine, dipipanone for Staphylococcus and cyclopentaneundecanoic acid, phosphonofluoridic acid, î-n-formyl-l-lysine for Pseudomonas. Pathway analysis revealed the involvement of fatty acid metabolism and amino acid degradation pathways. FTIR spectral data showed significant variances between control and spiked samples, particularly in the fatty acid spectral region. The identified metabolites and spectral patterns could serve as biomarkers for developing rapid pathogen detection methods, contributing to enhanced food safety protocols.

Nanobody-Induced Aggregation of Gold Nanoparticles: A Mix-and-Read Strategy for the Rapid Detection of Cronobacter sakazakii.

Protein-nanoparticle interactions play a crucial role in both biomedical applications and the biosafety assessment of nanomaterials. Here, we found that nanobodies can induce citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to aggregate into large clusters. Subsequently, we explored the mechanism behind this aggregation and proposed the "gold nucleation mechanism" to explain this phenomenon. Building on this observation, we developed a one-step label-free colorimetric method based on nanobody-induced AuNP aggregation. When nanobodies bind to target bacteria, spatial hindrance occurs, preventing further AuNPs aggregation. This alteration in surface plasmon resonance properties results in visible color changes. As an example, we present a simple and sensitive "mix-and-read" chromogenic immunosensor for Cronobacter sakazakii (C. sakazakii). The experiment can be completed within 20 min, with a visual detection limit of 103 CFU/mL and a quantitative detection limit of 136 CFU/mL. Importantly, our method exhibits no cross-reactivity with other bacterial species. This strategy harnesses the excellent properties of nanobodies and the optical characteristics of AuNPs for direct and rapid detection of foodborne pathogen.

Contemporary Methods and Novel Approaches in the Identification and Quantification of Foodborne Pathogens

Foodborne pathogens are a continuous problem attracting the attention of public health institutions, microbiologists and food producers globally. The scientific community has therefore been focused for years on finding “new” and “better” methods, all in an effort to detect foodborne pathogens in the timeliest manner possible. It should be emphasized that the development of molecular genetics – the use of genetic information of biological macromolecules in routine testing in particular – has led to a revolutionary turn in biological science research. Almost all procedures detect different bacterial genetic footprint or biomarkers, which makes bacterial isolation unnecessary. However, these recent studies of “fast microbiological methods”, which require only a fewhours, rather than a few days, have not supplanted the classic way of microbiological food testing, i.e. the classic microbiological methods and the gold standard. The new methods are therefore faced with high requirements such as great detection limits, speed of analysis, relatively low costs and high sensitivity to identify various foodborne pathogens. Some of them provide the possibility of monitoring the pathogens, which is an important part of establishing a pathogen control network in the agri-food production chain at the international level. In this comprehensive literature review the authors present and review identification and quantification methodswith emphasis on the most important EU foodborne pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichiacoli – STEC, Yersinia and Listeria). Methods have been divided into two large groups – Contemporary methods (Immunoassays and Polymerase Chain Reaction) and Novel approach methods (Biosensors, Bacterial typing, and Omics), and assessed by their functionality, advantages and disadvantages.

Detection and characterization of Campylobacter in air samples from poultry houses using shot-gun metagenomics – a pilot study

BackgroundFoodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter jejuni are responsible for a large proportion of the gastrointestinal infections worldwide associated with poultry meat. Campylobacter spp. can be found in the chicken fecal microbiome and can contaminate poultry meat during the slaughter process. Commonly used sampling methods to detect Campylobacter spp. at poultry farms use fecal droppings or boot swabs in combination with conventional culture techniques or PCR. In this pilot study, we have used air filtering and filters spiked with mock communities in combination with shotgun metagenomics to detect Campylobacter and test the applicability of this approach for the detection and characterization of foodborne pathogens. To the best of our knowledge is this the first study that combines air filtering with shotgun metagenomic sequencing for detection and characterization of Campylobacter.ResultsAnalysis of air filters spiked with different levels of Campylobacter, into a background of mock or poultry house communities, indicated that we could detect as little as 200 colony forming units (CFU) Campylobacter per sample using our protocols. The results indicate that even with limited sequencing effort we could detect Campylobacter in the samples analysed in this study. We observed significant amounts of Campylobacter in real-life samples from poultry houses using both real-time PCR as well as shotgun metagenomics, suggesting that the flocks in both houses were infected with Campylobacter spp. Interestingly, in both houses we find diverse microbial communities present in the indoor air which reflect the fecal microbiome of poultry. Some of the identified genera such as Staphylococcus, Escherichia and Pseudomonas are known to contain opportunistic pathogenic species.ConclusionsThese results show that air sampling of poultry houses in combination with shotgun metagenomics can detect and identify Campylobacter spp. present at low levels. This is important since early detection of Campylobacter enables measures to be put in place to ensure the safety of broiler products, animal health and public health. This approach has the potential to detect any pathogen present in poultry house air.

A highly sensitive aptamer–antibody birecognized ECL sensing platform based on the cascaded reaction between CeO2@mrGO and Co-SAC@NC for E. coli O157:H7 in untreated milk

Rapid, sensitive and specific detection of foodborne pathogens is of great significance to the early warning and prevention of foodborne diseases and environmental pollution. Here, an electrochemiluminescent (ECL) biosensor with the cascaded reaction between two nanozymes was developed for the detection of E. coli O157:H7. Cobalt single-atom catalyst (Co-SAC@NC) with oxidase (OD) -like activity, as a co-reaction accelerator of O2, catalyzed oxygen to reactive oxygen species (ROSs) and boosted ECL of luminol-O2 system. Another nanozyme CeO2@mrGO with excellent phosphatase-like activity by the introduction of Fe was use to label Ab. CeO2@mrGO captured E. coli O157:H7, and then combined with Ap on the electrode surface through the affinity of aptamer and antibody to form a sandwich structure on the gold electrode (CeO2@mrGO-Ab/E. coli O157:H7/Ap-AuE). CeO2@mrGO converted AAP into AA, which consumed ROS and quenched ECL emission of luminol-O2 system. As a consequence, this ECL sensor had a linear response range of 17–1.7 × 105 CFU/mL with LOD of 2.78 CFU/mL. This aptamer-antibody birecognized system was able to be applied to assay E. coli O157:H7 in untreated contaminated milk samples with satisfactory results.

Phage-modified dual-peak long-period fiber grating biosensor for ultrasensitive, rapid and specific detection of pathogen strains

Herein, we present an ultrasensitive, rapid and specific phage-modified dual-peak long-period fiber grating (Phage-DP-LPFG) biosensor for detecting foodborne pathogens. Compared to the single-peak resonance LPFG with a grating period of 360 μm, the DP-LPFG with a grating period of 163 μm offers enhanced sensitivity to refractive index changes caused by bacterial adsorption. By directionally immobilising phages on the DP-LPFG, the sensor achieves high specificity for target bacterial strains. Upon capturing the target strain, the short-wavelength near-infrared transmission loss peak undergoes a blue shift, whereas the long-wavelength transmission loss peak exhibits a red shift. The shift in spacing between the two peaks (Δλ) increases with higher bacterial capture, enabling the quantification of target strains based on Δλ changes. Using Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) as a model, the Phage-DP-LPFG biosensor demonstrates a linear detection range of 25–108 CFU/mL with a low limit of detection of 8 CFU/mL in 10 min under optimal conditions. The biosensor was also tested on food samples such as fish and milk, showing no notable differences from standard methods but with reduced detection time. It was further extended to the detection of another foodborne pathogen strain Hafnia paralvei (MCCC 1K06097) (H. paralvei (MCCC 1K06097)) with satisfactory results. This study offers a novel approach for the rapid, sensitive and specific detection of trace pathogenic strains in foods.

Accelerated Detection of Foodborne Pathogens and Toxins: Techniques and Applications – A Review

Pathogens associated with food and their corresponding toxins, including mycotoxins, pose a sig¬nificant threat to public health, leading to various health issues worldwide, particularly affecting infants, young children, and the elderly. The rise in foodborne illnesses highlights the crucial importance of food safety in ensuring a reliable food supply and promoting health. Timely detection of foodborne pathogens, toxins, and mycotoxins is essential for reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases. This review aims to provide comprehensive insights into the methodology for rapid detection, detailing the principles, appli¬cations, advantages, and limitations to enhance current knowledge. Conventional culture-based methods for foodborne pathogen identification are selective and are hindered by significant time demands, labor intensity, challenges from complex sample preparation, delayed results, and the need for specialized per¬sonnel. In contrast, the new emerging detection techniques such as immunological, nucleic acid-based, and biosensor-based methods offer time efficiency, reduced labor, improved accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and reliability, and are user-friendly. Recently, numerous novel techniques have been developed for the rapid identification of foodborne pathogens, toxins, and mycotoxins, transforming food safety practices. Providing rapid and accurate results is crucial for controlling and managing foodborne disease outbreaks while ensuring food safety. As the global food supply chain becomes more complex, advancing rapid and automated detection methods remains essential for safeguarding food safety and quality, as well as enhanc¬ing public health.

Prussian-Blue-Nanozyme-Enhanced Simultaneous Immunochromatographic Control of Two Relevant Bacterial Pathogens in Milk

Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes are relevant foodborne bacterial pathogens which may cause serious intoxications and infectious diseases in humans. In this study, a sensitive immunochromatographic analysis (ICA) for the simultaneous detection of these two pathogens was developed. For this, test strips containing two test zones with specific monoclonal antibodies (MAb) against lipopolysaccharides of S. typhimurium and L. monocytogenes and one control zone with secondary antibodies were designed, and the double-assay conditions were optimized to ensure high analytical parameters. Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) were used as nanozyme labels and were conjugated with specific MAbs to perform a sandwich format of the ICA. Peroxidase-mimic properties of PBNPs allowed for the catalytic amplification of the colorimetric signal on test strips, enhancing the assay sensitivity. The limits of detection (LODs) of Salmonella and Listeria cells were 2 × 102 and 7 × 103 cells/mL, respectively. LODs were 100-fold less than those achieved due to the ICA based on the traditional gold label. The developed double ICA was approbated for the detection of bacteria in cow milk samples, which were processed by simple dilution by buffer before the assay. For S. typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, the recoveries from milk were 86.3 ± 9.8 and 118.2 ± 10.5% and correlated well with those estimated by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as a reference method. The proposed approach was characterized by high specificity: no cross-reactivity with other bacteria strains was observed. The assay satisfies the requirements for rapid tests: a full cycle from sample acquisition to result assessment in less than half an hour. The developed ICA has a high application potential for the multiplex detection of other foodborne pathogens.

Revolutionizing Food Safety and Crop Production: Harnessing Novel Biosensors

Farmers and food manufacturers are under immense pressure from consumers and food safety regulations to deliver pollutant-free, high-quality foods. The extensive use of chemicals in food production poses ecological as well as health risks. In order to meet the demand for safe, preservative-free foods, rapid sensing techniques are required. Traditional analysis methods are time consuming, laboratory bound, expensive and require highly skilled personnel. Alternative analysis systems such as biosensors, which are user-friendly and enable real-time monitoring in the field should also be used. Biosensors have been developed to detect foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, etc. that cause food contamination, and a large number of cases are reported annually. Mycotoxin-contaminated food presents a serious threat to food safety. Biosensors have been utilised to identify Penicillium and aflatoxin infections, which are major mycotoxins found in food. Additionally, biosensors for identifying artificially ripened fruits have also been developed. Biosensors have been developed to detect pesticide residues such as atrazine, glyphosate, 2,4-D, methyl parathion, lindane, etc. Early identification of plant pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, is crucial because it enables farmers to take the necessary precautions to control the disease. Pathogens such as Fusarium sp., Phytophthora palmivora, tomato leaf curl virus are among some of the pathogens that have been successfully detected using novel biosensors. They can also be used for detecting heavy metals as they are cheaper, faster, more reliable and selective than traditional analysis methods. A bacterial biosensor was developed using Bacillus megaterium, which was sensitive to heavy metals like cadmium, copper and zinc in soil. Additionally, biosensors have been developed to detect heavy metal pollution in plants as well as irrigation water.

SERS-based Ag NCs@PDMS flexible substrate combined with chemometrics for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens on egg surface.

Aninnovative methodis introducedbased on the combination of label-free surface-enhanced Raman scattering with advanced multivariate analysis. This technique allows both quantitative and qualitative assessment of Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia colion eggshells. Using silver nanocubes embedded in polydimethylsiloxane, we consistently achieved Raman spectra of bacteria. The stability of the Ag NCs@PDMS substrate is confirmed using rhodamine 6G over 30days under standard conditions. Principal component analysis (PCA) effectively distinguishes between S. typhimurium and E. coli spectra. Partial least squares regression (PLS) modelsweredeveloped for quantitative determinationof bacteria on egg surfaces, yielding accurate results with minimal error. The S. typhimurium model achieves Rc2 = 0.9563 and RMSEC = 0.601 in calibration, and Rv2 = 0.9113 and RMSEV = 0.907 in validation. Similarly, the E. coli model achieves Rc2 = 0.9877 and RMSEC = 0.322 in calibration, and Rv2 = 0.9606 and RMSEV = 0.579 in validation. Recoveriesvalidate PLS predictions by inoculating egg surfaces with varying bacterial amounts. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of SERS-PLS for quantitative determinationof S. typhimurium and E. coli on eggshells, promising enhanced food safety protocols.

Target Recognition-Triggered Interfacial Electron Transfer Model: Toward Signal-On Photoelectrochemical Aptasensing for Efficient Detection of Staphylococcus aureus Using Ti3C2Tx-Au NBPs/ZnO NR Composites.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the most common foodborne pathogens worldwide, which poses a great threat to public health. It is of utmost importance to develop rapid, simple, and sensitive methods for the determination of S. aureus. A signal-on photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor is constructed herein based on titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx)-Au nanobipyramids (NBPs)/ZnO nanoarrays (NRs). The reliability and capability of the PEC aptasensor make it suitable for the sensitive and selective determination of S. aureus. First, the electrostatically self-assembled Ti3C2Tx-Au NBP nanomaterial was coated on the ZnO NR surface by a spin-coating method. On the one hand, Ti3C2Tx-Au NBPs can broaden the spectral absorption of ZnO NRs, resulting in Ti3C2Tx-Au NBPs/ZnO NR composites that exhibit a wide range of absorption from the ultraviolet to the infrared region. On the other hand, Ti3C2Tx can reduce the agglomeration of nanoparticles, while Au NBPs can effectively fix the aptamer through the Au-S bond. Specifically, the experimental results show that when S. aureus is present, the Au NBPs-aptamer-S. aureus complex is shed from the electrode surface, altering the interfacial electron transfer model and reducing the steric hindrance. Consequently, an amplified photocurrent signal for the quantitative determination of S. aureus is obtained. Under optimal experimental conditions, a linear correlation is observed between the current response of the aptasensor and the logarithm of the S. aureus concentration (ranging from 1.0 to 1.0 × 106 CFU/mL), with an impressive detection limit as low as 0.5 CFU/mL. Furthermore, the aptasensor has been successfully employed for the detection of S. aureus in milk, with the recovery of 93.0%-99.0%. Hence, this research offers a novel approach for the detection of foodborne pathogens and other noxious substances.

Salmonella Detection in Food Using a HEK-hTLR5 Reporter Cell-Based Sensor.

The development of a rapid, sensitive, specific method for detecting foodborne pathogens is paramount for supplying safe food to enhance public health safety. Despite the significant improvement in pathogen detection methods, key issues are still associated with rapid methods, such as distinguishing living cells from dead, the pathogenic potential or health risk of the analyte at the time of consumption, the detection limit, and the sample-to-result. Mammalian cell-based assays analyze pathogens' interaction with host cells and are responsive only to live pathogens or active toxins. In this study, a human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cell line expressing Toll-Like Receptor 5 (TLR-5) and chromogenic reporter system (HEK dual hTLR5) was used for the detection of viable Salmonella in a 96-well tissue culture plate. This cell line responds to low concentrations of TLR5 agonist flagellin. Stimulation of TLR5 ligand activates nuclear factor-kB (NF-κB)-linked alkaline phosphatase (AP-1) signaling cascade inducing the production of secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase (SEAP). With the addition of a ρ-nitrophenyl phosphate as a substrate, a colored end product representing a positive signal is quantified. The assay's specificity was validated with the top 20 Salmonella enterica serovars and 19 non-Salmonella spp. The performance of the assay was also validated with spiked food samples. The total detection time (sample-to-result), including shortened pre-enrichment (4 h) and selective enrichment (4 h) steps with artificially inoculated outbreak-implicated food samples (chicken, peanut kernel, peanut butter, black pepper, mayonnaise, and peach), was 15 h when inoculated at 1-100 CFU/25 g sample. These results show the potential of HEK-DualTM hTLR5 cell-based functional biosensors for the rapid screening of Salmonella.

CRISPR/Cas12a and Hybridization Chain Reaction-Coregulated Magnetic Relaxation Switching Biosensor for Sensitive Detection of Viable Salmonella in Animal-Derived Foods.

We combined a CRISPR/Cas12a system with a hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to develop an ultrasensitive magnetic relaxation switching (MRS) biosensor for detecting viable Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium). Magnetic nanoparticles of two sizes (30 and 1000 nm: MNP30 and MNP1000, respectively) were coupled through HCR. The S. typhimurium gene-activated CRISPR/Cas12a system released MNP30 from the MNP1000-HCR-MNP30 complex through a trans-cleavage reaction. After magnetic separation, released MNP30 was collected from the supernatant and served as a transverse relaxation time (T2) signal probe. Quantitative detection of S. typhimurium is achieved by establishing a linear relationship between the change in T2 and the target gene. The biosensor's limit of detection was 77 CFU/mL (LOD = 3S/M, S = 22.30, M = 0.87), and the linear range was 102-108 CFU/mL. The accuracy for detecting S. typhimurium in real samples is comparable to that of qPCR. Thus, this is a promising method for the rapid and effective detection of foodborne pathogens.

Rapid detection and occurrence of foodborne pathogens in minimally processed vegetables: a review

SummaryThe increased consumption of minimally processed vegetables (MPV) in various countries is related to the continued interest of consumers in seeking practical and healthy food items. Due to multiple processing steps, MPV can be contaminated by several foodborne pathogens that pose significant health risks to consumers. The use of rapid techniques to detect pathogens in ready‐to‐eat (RTE) foods such as MPV is therefore essential to provide high quality and safe products. This review aims to provide a comprehensive description of molecular‐based techniques for rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in MPV, and their occurrence reported in studies published in the last 10 years. The main pathogens detected using rapid methods were Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella spp., and Campylobacter jejuni. Molecular‐based techniques included real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), multiplex PCR, matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF MS), and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The data indicate high incidences of pathogenic bacteria in MPV, stressing the need for their rapid detection in these products to prevent associated health risks. Further studies should be carried out to increase the sensitivity of molecular‐based techniques and prevent false positives due to undesirable non‐specific PCR amplifications.

Emergence of Microfluidic Platforms as Point of Care Diagnostics for the Detection of Plant and Foodborne Pathogens

Emergence of Microfluidic Platforms as Point of Care Diagnostics for the Detection of Plant and Foodborne Pathogens