Food Safety
Food group involved in bacteria detector development 02 Oct 2009
Zwanenberg Food Group in the Netherlands is involved in the development of a prototype for the rapid detection of viruses and bacteria.
The meat processing company is working closely with Ostendum, a spin-off from the University of Twente, for this purpose.
“The newly developed machine can help detect pathogenic organisms ‘on the spot’,” according to Erik Vliek, Director of Quality Assurance/Research & Development at Zwanenberg. The present methods are expensive, complicated and time-consuming, as they take a number of days to establish whether or not meat contains viruses or bacteria, for example.”
Ostendum recently presented the first prototype of a detector which can show whether a person is contaminated with a virus or bacteria within a few minutes. In foods, one can think in terms not only of bacteria but also the presence of the Noro virus. Ostendum has been working on the portable machine since 2008, and plans to market it at the end of 2010.
The detector can not only detect viruses and bacteria on the basis of a blood or saliva sample, but also proteins and DNA molecules. “That also offers perspectives for other applications. It’s simple to identify the type of meat under inspection, for example,” says Vliek. The support offered by the Zwanenberg Food Group consists mainly of the provision of know-how and facilities, such as the company laboratory in Almelo.
The machine developed by Ostendum comprises a “lab on a chip” and a laser detector. Ostendum is working on two other prototypes, and will be testing the three prototypes in practice, in co-operation with Zwanenberg and the Enschede Laboratory for Microbiology of Twente.
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