Food safety

Food production and food consumption take place in complex environments in which next to the microorganisms present in the natural environment, many other sources of proteins, fat and carbohydrates are present. The presence of the endogenous flora as well as the macromolecular structures of the food can cause a lot of difficulty in detection and tracing of specific microorganisms, such as potential food pathogens or probiotic strains added to the food product for enhanced functionality.

Next to classical detection DNA-based techniques such as (q)PCR , new metagenomics methods based on genomic data have been developed that allow for a fast and accurate tracking or detection of specific species or even strains among the natural microflora.

Minimizing contaminated food outbreaks is a big public health issue. In the U.S. alone, one in six people are affected by food-borne diseases each year. That results in 128,000 hospitalizations, 3,000 deaths, and $9 billion in medical costs. Add to that another $75 billion annually in contaminated food that has to be recalled and thrown away. As the food supply chain becomes more global and complex, food safety issues will continue to increase until there are new scientific methods to mitigate the safety hazards within the system.


Case study

Lavandin honey microbiome metagenome: reanalyzing EBI project ERP002477, sample SRR5188336

Seqomics' reanalyzation reveals huge number of unassigned sequences belong to Apis mellifera filamentous virus and confirms Lactobacillus presence:



SRR5188336.daa (results in MEGAN6 compatible file)


(Source: IBM-Mars )

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