Detection of foodborne pathogens in irrigation water using a biosensor

Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes are pathogens frequently involved in foodborne outbreaks and have been isolated from irrigation water. For conventional pathogen detection, cultural methods such as enrichment and plating followed by confirmation are used to detect foodborne pathogens, and this method often takes 1-2 days, rendering the work long and cumbersome. A biosensor was developed by Phoenix Biometrics to detect airborne bacteria, viruses, and spores as well. The sensor is compact, light-weight, portable and provides “real-time” detection and characterization. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the biosensor in detecting foodborne pathogens in water, by comparing the results between the biosensor and the plating method.