POTENTIAL FOR RAPID IN VITRO ASSAYS TO MEASURE FOODBORNE SALMONELLA VIRULENCE IN FOODS – A REVIEW

Abstract

Assessing the public health risk to consumers of foods is a priority in terms of food safety because of frequency of foodborne illness outbreaks caused by pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella. Innovative and rapid methods continue to be devised to detect, isolate and measure the potential for foodborne disease caused by foodborne Salmonella spp. in the U.S.A. To develop rapid in vitro assays for assessment of virulence, it is important to understand the physiological and genetic principles that enable Salmonella to become invasive and infective within a host. Combining this knowledge with rapid detection technologies will lead to more extensive and real time appraisal of Salmonella physiological and pathogenic status in food matrices.