Multiplex detection of food-borne pathogens

Abstract

Detection of food-borne pathogens is traditionally carried out by plating out techniques in selective or differential media using Petri agar dishes or other culture-dependent methods, usually designed for each pathogen to be detected. These classical methods are time and personnel consuming and also may last for up to 5 days in the case of final confirmation of some specific pathogens. Here we describe a method for fast multiplex detection of nine food-borne pathogens (all species usually required under most countrylegislations) by means of a single multiplex PCR reaction coupled to a capillary electrophoresis detection, in just 2–2.5 h and with a minimum cost of around 2 € per sample and nine pathogens. This method saves consumables and personnel time and allows a faster detection of any possible contaminated food batches at industrial level, therefore helping to prevent future food-borne outbreaks at clinical level.