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Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

 

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Advancing analytical microbiology in the dairy industry

23 June 2014 | By Mickaël Boyer and Jing Geng, Danone Nutricia Research

Today’s consumers have greater expectations than ever before regarding food. They expect not only safe, good quality and value-based products but also a real commitment of the food company toward social responsibility to the community, e.g. regarding nutritional education, sustainable development and adaptation to local geographical specifications. Those expectations are…

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Survey of undeclared allergenic peanuts in commercial foods by Taqman real time PCR

4 November 2013 | By Inés María López-Calleja Diaz, Silvia de la Cruz, Nicolette Pegels, Isabel González, Teresa García, and Rosario Martín, Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Food Technology, Complutense University of Madrid

Food allergies are a serious public health problem. Around one to two per cent of the population suffer from some type of food allergy and even higher prevalence levels (up to eight per cent) are estimated for children. Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) allergy is one of the most severe food allergies…

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Appropriate controls for PCR detection of foodborne pathogens

30 April 2012 | By Martin D’Agostino, Microbiologist, The Food and Environment Research Agency

Over the years, there has been a great increase in the number of PCR based assays for foodborne pathogen detection. For example, a very basic search for ‘salmonella food PCR assay’ using the PubMed.gov database will produce over 600 results. Clearly, this has led to a huge choice of PCR-based…

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Same-day PCR testing of Salmonellain meat: From research to routine application at slaughterhouses

7 July 2011 | By J. Hoorfar, C. Löfström & M.H. Josefsen, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark and F. Hansen & S. Mansdal, Danish Meat Research Institute and J. Andersen, Danish Crown A/S and G. Pedersen, TiCan amba

Due to the very short shelf-life of fresh (especially ground) meat, slaughterhouses benefit from faster screening tests to dispatch Salmonella-free meat as soon as possible after slaughter. An increasing number of European countries require that the meat is tested as free for Salmonella before it is imported. This is currently…

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PCR technologies for the detection of pathogens in the food industry

3 March 2011 | By Geraldine Duffy, Head of Food Safety Department, Teagasc Food Research Centre

Food safety is critically important to the public health of the consumer and the economic sustainability of the agri-food sector. The consumer wants assurance that food is safe and for the food industry the economic implications and loss of goodwill associated with a food poisoning incident or scare has increased…

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New applications of PCR in food control

30 June 2010 | By Jeffrey Hoorfar Research Manager & Professor of Food Microbiology, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark

PCR testing of pathogens has gained widespread use in quality control laboratories throughout the food industry. Many excellent easy-to-use commercial kits are now available for a wide range of microorganisms. But are there any other potential uses for PCR other than a simple plus/minus response that indicates presence or absence…

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PCR as a molecular method in the food industry

22 February 2010 | By Luca Cocolin, Paola Dolci & Kalliopi Rantsiou, DIVAPRA, Agricultural Microbiology and Food Technology Sector, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Turin

The presence of pathogens is a serious problem that industries producing foodstuffs have to face on a daily base. Foodborne pathogens can survive during processing or they can come in contact with the product due to recontamination or cross-contamination. Food products that contain pathogens represent a risk for human health…

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Detecting bacterial spores in soup manufacturing

10 September 2009 | By A.C.M van Zuijlen & S.J.C.M Oomes, Unilever R&D; P. Vos, Check-Points B.V. and S. Brul, University of Amsterdam

Spores from mesophilic aerobic sporeforming bacteria (Bacillus) are sometimes able to survive the thermal process of commercial sterile products and sporadically cause spoilage or food poisoning. Because of an increasing demand for more fresh products, ideally the processing temperatures should be tailored to inactivate the actual spore load rather than…

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Use of molecular techniques in the food industry

1 June 2009 | By Mieke Uyttendaele and Andreja Rajkovic, Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Ghent University

Microbial analysis in foods is an integrated part of management of microbial safety in the food chain. Both competent authorities and individual food business operators use microbial analysis for monitoring of the actual situation and trend analysis in order to detect emerging risks. For compliance testing to defined microbiological criteria…