The use of bacteriophage-based systems for the separation and concentration of Salmonella

Techniques for the separation/concentration of micro-organisms from background food matrices can be applied to increase the speed of analysis and ease of isolation and detection of target micro-organisms. One recent example of such a technique is the immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedure that has been used for the separation of specific micro-organisms from foods. This paper describes the use of a novel biosorbent consisting of a Salmonella-specific bacteriophage (phage) immobilized to a solid phase that was used for the separation and concentration of Salmonella from food materials. This work has shown that a Salmonella-specific phage-based biosorbent could remove Salmonella from culture fluid and separate Salmonella from suspensions of other Enterobacteriaceae. The ease of production of phage, high affinity of phage-cell interaction and the ability of phage to infect host cells in heterogeneous environments indicates the potential of such a biosorbent as the basis for a reliable separation system in food microbiological analysis.