Dive Brief:
- Faster listeria tests are coming out to help manufacturers determine if their products are contaminated more quickly than the current standard tests, which take several days to produce results.
- Dr. Carmen Gomes, of Texas A&M’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, has developed a biosensor chip that will soon be able to detect listeria levels as low as one bacterium in a one-ounce sample. It only takes about two to three minutes for the chip to identify the presence of listeria in food samples.
- USDA and the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists have approved the first in-plant pathogen detection for listeria, called Sample6 Detect/L. This technology takes just a few minutes to determine the presence of as few as one listeria cell.
Dive Insight:
These faster listeria tests are hitting the market at the same time that listeria is making quite the round of headlines lately. These types of innovations could prove a strong resource for food companies in the future.