One day to one hour: how quickly can foodborne pathogens be detected?

Foodborne pathogens pose serious public health risks. Rapid, accurate technologies to detect a low number of target cells (1 cell/25-325 g sample) and microbial toxins are in demand in order to assess product safety in hours to up to 1 day. Varied pathogen loads and the complexity of food present a major challenge. Current culture methods, while accurate, are lengthy. New methods, using brief culturing and detection kits (antibody based, nucleic acid amplification or nano/biosensors) or a culture-independent approach coupled with nucleic acid amplification, traditionally used for viruses/parasites, can be used to obtain results in hours. A strategic approach involving two-step, rapid, high-throughput screening to rule out negatives followed by a confirmatory test could accomplish product testing in 1 h to 1 day.