Eliminating a threat to health
Foodborne disease is a serious public health issue with a high social cost in
many societies. Salmonella contamination is one of the most prevalent found in
the food industry today. This year, the global EU level for the presence of
any Salmonella was 30.7% for large-scale laying hen holdings1 and in the US it
is the country’s second most frequently reported cause of food-borne illness
with 1.4 million people infected each year and an estimated 600 deaths.
DSM Nutritional Products is heavily committed in providing the highest
possible food safety standards of its products. Moreover, considering the
relevance of this topic for the modern food industry, the company is also
committed to providing the industry with innovative tools for increasing
food-chain safety.
To help the food industry to meet the challenges presented by Salmonella
contamination and to meet the tighter governmental regulations, DSM
Nutritional Products, in conjunction with its partner Check-Points, has
introduced Premi®Test Salmonella, a novel, DNA-based detection method for
Salmonella serotypes.
The Salmonella problem…
Salmonella contamination is one of the most prevalent found in the food
industry today. This year, the global EU level for the presence of any
Salmonella was 30.7% for large-scale laying-hen holdings (source – EFSA
Journal 2006 81, 1-71) and in the US it is the country’s second most
frequently reported cause of food-borne illness. Contaminated food products
cause 95% of Salmonella infections, according to (Centers for Disease Control)
estimates. Annually in the USA, 1.4 million people are infected by
salmonellosis and 1000 people die from Salmonellosis.
Early detection and identification of the responsible serotypes is vital to
indicate the source of contamination and to enable direct corrective action to
be taken to control or eradicate the Salmonella problem. Yet there are many
Salmonella serotypes that cause different kinds of contamination and current
serological identification methods can take up to 5 days or even several
weeks. Moreover, they require skilled and experienced staff.
The perfect solution…Premi®Test Salmonella
To help the food industry to meet the challenges presented by Salmonella
contamination and to meet the tighter governmental regulations, DSM
Nutritional Products, in conjunction with its partner Check-Points, has
introduced a Salmonella serotyping method that enables the source of
contamination in the supply chain to be indicated faster and with greater
precision. What’s more, the routine is extremely fast and can be carried out
in the lab, enabling appropriate action to be taken to prevent further
contamination.
Key to the effectiveness of Premi®Test Salmonella is its ability to go beyond
the primary-screening stage and identify a large number of serovars in a
single test. Developments from the late nineties onwards in legislation and
food-safety programs of major food-chain operations showed that with early
Salmonella serotyping and ensuing corrective actions, the levels of
contamination could be eliminated or at least considerably reduced. In these
programs, Premi®Test Salmonella is the ideal tool to fight Salmonella
contamination quickly and effectively.
