Assessment of Foodborne Pathogens in Ready-to-Eat Foods Using Rapid Biosensor Technology

Abstract

RTE foods are highly popular due to the reasons of convenience and limited preparation, but continue to serve as a frequent source of foodborne pathogens owing to the large amount of handling, the reliance on cold chaining, and the lack of a terminal heat treatment. The standard regulatory decision regarding the detection of pathogen still relies on conventional microbiological culture and confirmatory molecular techniques; nevertheless, they have a slow turnaround time that slows risk decisions in high-throughput retail and institutional environments. Near-real-time screening of high-risk pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, pathogenic Escherichia coli (including O157:H7) and Campylobacter spp. can be a promising approach with rapid biosensor technologies, which combines biological recognition factors (e.g., antibodies, aptamers, enzymes, phages) with transduction technologies (electrochemical, optical, piezoelectric, and magnetic). This paper is a synthesis of the existing knowledge on biosensor-based detection of RTE foods, focusing on analytical performance, limitations of sample preparation and applicability to food safety monitoring. An effective methodology framework is suggested to be used in the field-relevant evaluation of the biosensor screening in relation to the reference methods, such as the pre-enrichment combination, management of the matrix effects, and quality assurance controls. It is emphasized in the discussion that although biosensors have the potential to enormously decrease time-to-result and allow decentralized screening performance is highly dependent on the complexity of food matrices, small infectious dose organisms, and the need to discriminate viability. The limitations and future directions are outlined taking into consideration ethical communication of swift results, standardization and adherence to open science and reproducibility standards in food safety diagnostics.