Testing of product before it goes out the door can help. And thanks to new technologies, many companies can establish in-house laboratories for some of the tests important to the meat industry.
Dr. Daniel Y.C. Fung, a professor of food science at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., says the difficulty of doing rapid testing in-house depends on the actual test being done.
“There are some very simple ones like lateral flow ELISA test (10 minutes) and there are some more complicated ones,” he says. “So it all depends on the type of microbiological tests involved. As a rule if you plan to do pathogen tests it will be much more difficult because you will need secured facilities.”
Fung goes on to explain that there are actually four levels of laboratory capability, ranging from BL1 to BL4. A BL1 lab has the biosecurity and equipment of a high school laboratory. Good only for the most basic of work, such as testing for E. coli O:157.
A BL2, at the university research level and the type of in-house lab a meat processor should have, has a higher standard. Fung says that labs at this level would have a bacteriological hood to contain pathogens and would be suitable for most work necessary for the meat industry.
The two upper levels have increasing biosecurity and restrictions up to BL4. A BL4 lab is the type used by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for its research in to pathogens such as Ebola.
“Companies developing products have worked to make it easier for the testing to be done in a rapid and consistent manner,” says Purnendu Vasavada, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. “It’s not that difficult at all depending on what kind of testing your doing.”
Speeding up
Both Fung and Vasavada say that having technicians conducting the testing on campus can help speed up the process more than simply sending them out for completion.“Nowadays, because the speed of getting result has been increasing greatly, it is more efficient to do in-house testing to minimize mailing samples to outside laboratories and waiting for the result to come back a couple of days later,” says Fung. “Again, it depends on how skillful are your technicians in microbiological manipulations.” Fung explains that testing for all pathogens has increased so much that part of the benefit of having an in-house lab is simply saving time on transit of samples and results.
”A decade ago, most consultants recommended sending out samples out of safety.,” he says. “ Companies have been sending out the samples ever since. Now advances have made it possible to have a lab with the same capabilities for a more affordable price.”
Vasavada adds that having a lab in the building, depending on the number of technicians on staff, can help with the throughput of the tests themselves.
“The word ‘rapid’ can have a different connotation. Doesn’t always mean less time, can also mean avoiding bottlenecks,” he says.
The professors differ a bit on the level of training needed to effectively staff a lab. Fung believes that a lab technician should have a minimum of Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology to be effective.
Vasavada has a slightly different opinion. “I used to think that too, but what if you don’t find that?” he says. “What if someone who’s worked for 15 years has a good understanding of compliance? They would be very valuable in the lab function and can be cross trained.” But even then, the technician would need some experience before working in a lab and some education beyond a high school diploma. Backgrounds in biology and microbiology would also be needed.
Paying for it
There are costs both with the establishment and maintenance of a laboratory. “The cost involved in having a functional laboratory and on-going up keep of supply, disposables and personnel is quite substantial,” Fung says. “But then one unfortunate recall of food products can run into the millions of dollars loss and bad image from the public for a company.” The lab could then help save money in the long run.Fung goes on to say that an office with basic equipment could be used as a lab. But even that small investment will run into a couple hundred thousand dollars for equipment such as microscopes, hoods, incubators, storage and more.
But even after the lab is set up, there are also supplies needed to keep it working. “If you’re going to do conventional testing, you’re going to need Petri dishes, water baths and slides,” says Vasavada. “Those things are given. Then what you need are supplies, like refrigerators, incubators and sampling bags. If you are a small or medium sized, it’s easier to have some those things made and delivered just in time then deal with storage.”
As with other part of the meat industry, there is near constant development of new advances in equipment.
Vasavada says that one item that has recently come to the market is the electric pipettor, which makes it convenient and easier to deliver sample aliquots to Petri dishes or Petri film. Then there is some development in automated colony counters that allows colony counting, reading zone assays and other activities. Also, several software applications allowing automated or semi-automated recording and analyzing of results and electronic record keeping are becoming available.
“For the past 28 years we have organized the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Food Microbiology Symposium and Rapid Methods workshops where commercial vendors display and discuss various methods, equipments and systems for rapid Microbiological testing,” Vasavada says. “The miniaturization and microprocessors developed over the last ten years are making a difference in testing.”
Making the right choice
Vasavada and Fung agree that processors should be careful and consider their needs when selecting the equipment for an in-house lab.Fung says the most important consideration is to properly enumerate, identify and classify the target microbes or chemicals in the food and the right personnel to operate the test, obtain result and interpret the data for the supervisor to be able to make a decision to release the products or to hold the products for more testing. An effective lab would need to be able to do viable cell counts of both mold and bacteria and pathogen detection.
“The thing to keep in mind is the equipment consistent to what the client or regulator wants,” Vasavada says, adding that processors need to pay attention to how reliable, user friendly and rugged the equipment is. How widely the equipment is used in the industry is also a factor.
“What kind of supplies and reagents are required and what is the shelf life of those supplies, says Vasavada. “Finally, you should consider how well the test works with your other testing activities.” All of these are considerations to be taken into account.
The limits
Of course, there is a limit to what a lab in the facility can realistically do.“I would think you can’t do a lot of the toxin testing, with botulism, you can’t really do that easily,” says Vasavada. “Testing for food borne viruses may also pose a challenge.”
However, beyond those restrictions, what the lab could do is limited only by the budget.
Fung says it depends on the needs of the company. “I know a company uses several ribotyping instruments all the time, each costing about $150,000 and each sample costs $45,” he says. “That company performs millions of tests a year worldwide.” Fung continues by saying that the company does that to identify pathogens accurately to the species and subspecies level to protect their products in case a law suit is involved. Their lab has machines and instruments for PCR, gene sequencing, ribotyping, gel electropheresis, sophisticated nanotechnology system GC, HPLC, focal plane array, Fourier transform infrared spectroscope and more.
But a reasonably supplied company lab can do the basics and doesn’t necessarily need that level of sophistication for general monitoring. They do need the best technology for that general monitoring in the case of a recall. And even with just using the basics, a company using in-house would need to have multimillion dollar sales to justify it.
There is new technology coming down the line that will prove use useful for companies.
Fung says that one new product coming down the pipeline is one-shift tests, allowing for plant managers to make adjustments as needed.
Other suppliers are working on making DNA testing more user-friendly, Vasavada says. There’s also a new generation of immunology-based tests that will be available.
Keeping current
Even with the best training for technicians, they need to keep current to stay up on the latest developments in a fast-changing sector of the industry.“I think they should take part in a lot of the training going on in university extension workshops,” says Vasavada. “Make some way to do the in-house training and work it into the compensation package. They have incentive to show what they’re learning and help the bottom line of the company.”
Fung suggests going to national and international scientific meetings regularly. Those attending can experience short courses, seminars, workshops and other resources. A good example is Fung’s International Workshop on Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology held annually since 1981 at Kansas State University. That event will be held June 13-20 this year.
Another opportunity for education is at Vasavada’s Food Microbiology Symposium held at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls on October 19-22, 2008.
Where to go for equipment and supplies.
There are many companies working both internationally and domestically in supplying materials and equipment for testing. The following is a partial list of the many companies working on developments in rapid testing.|
Advanced AnalyticalTechnologies Inc. 2901 S. Loop Drive Suite 3300 Ames, Iowa 50010 Phone: (515) 296-6600 Fax: (515) 296-6789 www.aati-us.com info@aati-us.com AES Laboratoire/Chemunex 301 N.Harrison Street Suite 109 Princeton, N.J. 08540 Phone: (609) 497-0166 Fax: (609) 497-7307 www.aeschemunex.com info@aeschemunex.com Applied Biosystems 850 Lincoln Centre Drive Foster City, Calif. 94404 Phone: (800) 327-3002 Fax: (650) 638-5884 www.appliedbiosystems.com Becton, Dickinson and Co. 1 Becton Drive Franklin Lakes, N.J. 07417 Phone: (201) 847-6800 www.bd.com BioControl Systems Inc. 12822 S.E. 32nd St. Bellevue, Wash. 98005 Phone: (800) 245-0113 Fax: (425) 603-0080 Biolog Inc. 21124 Cabot Blvd. Hayward, Calif. 94545 Phone: (800) 284-4949 Fax: (510) 782-4639 www.biolog.com info@biolog.com bioMerieux sa 100 Rodolphe Street Durham, N.C. 27712 Phone : (919) 620-2000 Fax : (919) 620-2211 http://www.biomerieux-usa.com Bio-Rad Inc. 1000 Alfred Nobel Drive Hercules, Calif. 94547 Phone: (510) 724-7000 Fax: (510) 741-5815 www.bio-rad.com B2B@bio-rad.com Bioscience International 11607 Magruder Lane Rockville, Md. 20852-4365 Phone: (301) 230-0072 FAX: (301) 230-1418 www.biosci-intl.com BioInfo@Biosci-Intl.com Cepheid 904 Caribbean Drive Sunnyvale, Calif. 94089 Phone: (408) 541-4191 Fax: (408) 541-4192 www.cepheid.com salessupport@cepheid.com Celsis International PLC 600 W. Chicago Ave Suite 625 Chicago, Ill. 60610-2422 Tel: (312) 476 1200 Fax: (312) 476 1201 www.celsis.com RDinfo@celsis.com Charm Sciences Inc. 659 Andover St. Lawrence, Mass. 01843-1032 Phone: (978) 687-9200 Fax: (978) 687-9216 www.charm.com info@charm.com DuPont Qualicon ESL Building 400 Box 80400 Route 141 and Henry Clay Road Wilmington, Del. 19880-0400 Phone: (800) 863-6842 Fax: (302) 695-5301 Dynal Biotech Invitrogen Corp. (US Division of Dynal) 1600 Faraday Avenue P.O. Box 6482 Carlsbad, Calif. 92008 Phone: (760) 603-7200 Fax: (760) 602-6500 farnaz.khadem@invitrogen.com Fisher Scientific 2000 Park Lane Pittsburgh, Penn. 15275 Phone: (800) 766-7000 www.fishersci.com/food Food Safety Net Services 199 W. Rhapsody San Antonio, Texas 78216 Phone: (210) 384-3424 Fax: (210) 308-8730 www.food-safetynet.com sales@food-safetynet.com Hardy Diagnostics Inc. 1430 W. McCoy Lane Santa Maria, Calif. 93455 Phone: (800) 266-2222 Fax: (805) 614-9274 |
HiMedia Labs Pvt Limited A-406, Bhaveshwar Plaza LBS Marg, Mumbai 400 086 India www.himedialabs.com Info@himedialabs.com Idaho Technology Inc. 390 Wakara Way Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 Phone: (801) 736-6354 Fax: (801) 588-0507 www.idahotech.com it@idahotech.com IDEXX Laboratories Inc. One IDEXX Drive Westbrook, Maine 04092 Phone: (800) 321-0207 Fax: (207) 556-4630 IUL S. A. Torrent de l’Estadella, 22 08030 Barcelona, Spain Phone: +34 93 274 0232 Fax: +34 93 274 0144 www.iul-inst.com iul@iul-inst.com MATRIX MicroScience Ltd 400 Corporate Circle, Suite D, Golden, Colo. 80401 Phone: (303) 277-9613 Fax: (303) 277-9643 www.matrixmsci.com/ info@matrixmsci.com Merck KgaA Frankfurter Str. 250 64293 Darmstadt Germany Phone: +49 6151 72-0 Fax: +49 6151 72-2000 www.merck.de service@merck.de MicroBioLogics Inc. 217 Osseo Avenue North Saint Cloud, Minn. 56303 Phone: (320) 253-1640 Fax: (320) 253-6250 www.microbiologics.com marketing@mbl2000.com Microbiology International 5108 Pegasus Court Suite A Frederick, Md. 21704 Phone: (800) 396-4276 Fax: (301) 662-8096 Micrology Laboratories LLC 1303 Eisenhower Dr. S. Goshen, Ind. 46526-5360 Phone: (574) 533-3351 Fax: (574) 533-3370 www.micrologylabs.com info@micrologylabs.com 3M Microbiology 3M Corporate Headquarters 3M Center St. Paul, Minn. 55144-1000 www.3m.com/microbiology Neogen Corp. 620 Lesher Place Lansing, Mich. Phone: (800) 234-5333 Fax: (517) 372-0108 New Horizons Diagnostics Corp. 9110 Red Branch Road Columbia, Md. 21045 Phone: (410) 992-9357 Ext. 235 or 232 Fax: (410) 992-0328 www.nhdiag.com nhdiag@aol.com Oxoid Inc. 1926 Merivale Road, Suite 100 Nepean, Ontario K2G 1E8 Canada Phone: (613) 226-1318 Fax: 613 226 3728 www.oxoid.com oxoid.ca.webinfo@thermofisher.com Remel Products 12076 Santa Fe Drive P.O. Box 14428 Lenexa, Kan. 66215 Phone: (800) 255-6730 Fax: (800) 621-8251 www.remel.com remel@remel.com Strategic Diagnostics Inc. 111 Pencader Drive Newark, Del. 19702 Phone: (800) 544-8881 Fax: (302) 456-6782 www.sdix.com sales@sdix.com Warnex Diagnostics Inc. 3885 Industriel Blvd. Laval, Quebec H7L 4S3 Canada Phone: (888) 988-1888 Fax: (450) 663-2784 www.warnex.ca info@warnex.ca |
This is a partial list. Many other companies may work on Rapid Methods. Any exclusion of companies is not intentional.
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