New Biosensor Detects Dangerous Bacteria.

• Position: FOODBORNE ILLNESS

When food is recalled due to contamination from bacteria such as salmonella, one may wonder how a tainted product ended up on store shelves in the first place. Biosensor technology being developed at the University of Missouri, Columbia, could give retailers and regulators an earlier warning on dangers in food, improving public health and giving consumers peace of mind.

A biosensor provides a rapid way for producers to know if this invisible danger is present in both raw and ready-to-eat food before it reaches the store. Annually, more than 48,000,000 people in the U.S. get sick from foodborne illnesses like salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Current tests used to determine positive cases of salmonella--for instance, culturing samples and extracting DNA to detect pathogens-are accurate, but may take anywhere from one to five days to produce results," says Mahmoud Almasri, associate professor of...