New method to pinpoint exact origin of foodborne bacteria showing promise, could lead to development of more accurate industry standard, U.S. scientists say

Nevin Barich

LOS ANGELES , October 27, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – U.S. scientists say a new method to pinpoint the exact origin of foodborne bacteria has shown a lot of promise and could lead to the development of a more accurate industry standard, FoodProductionDaily.com reported Oct. 26.

Researchers at Cornell University are looking to establish an alternative to current methods used in the tracing of foodborne illnesses by breaking up the DNA of bacteria samples and analyzing their banding patterns.

With the current method, different strains of bacteria are often found to have genetically similar DNA fingerprints, which make it hard to differentiate between them. But the new method allowed researchers to quickly see the difference between outbreak-related cases and non-outbreak related cases.

The primary source of this article is FoodProductionDaily.com, Montpellier, France, on Oct. 26, 2011.

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