A new test requires only an hour to detect Salmonella in chicken, eggs and other foods vulnerable to the pathogen, reports a recent paper published in Angewandte Chemie.
“We have a new method that can be used to achieve on site testing of Salmonella,” said study co-author Yingfu Li, a professor of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology who leads McMaster University’s Functional Nucleic Acids Research Group.
Traditional Salmonella testing relies on cell cultures in a laboratory. This overnight process allows any Salmonella present in a sample to multiply to make it easier to detect.
“The testing of Salmonella is not easy,” he said. “I think that’s a big problem.”
Once scaled up, the test could improve food safety, reduce costs associated with processing poultry and limit broad recalls due to the foodborne illness.
Salmonella in poultry is under intense scrutiny right now. In the Fall of 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) unveiled a proposed framework to improve Salmonella control in poultry products.
Simpler than a COVID test
The test uses a special pipette to detect Salmonella in a sample.
The pipette tip is lined with a synthetic nucleic acid molecule, developed at McMaster University, sandwiched between two microscopic particles of gold.
Salmonella can cut through the two particles, which triggers a biosensor on a paper test strip to turn red.
“All the poultry farmer or workers need to do is put the liquid into the pipette tip and let it sit for a while, just like we do with the COVID test,” Li explained. “If Salmonella is in it, you will see the red color, other it will be white.”
The test was developed with support from Mitacs and Toyota Tsusho Canada Inc, an indirect subsidiary of the Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
