Food safety on top

What good are foodstuffs chockfull with vitamins and minerals if they contain substances that make you sick? No good at all. Safety is a basic condition to be met by any foodstuff. That’s why DSM devotes so much attention to ensuring that products and production processes meet the highest microbial safety standards.

Producers want to do all they can to address the food safety issue but are facing an ever greater challenge, particularly in the field of microbial safety. Minimizing the risks demands careful management of all aspects of food quality and safety. There are several trends that entail a higher risk of unfavorable growth of micro-organisms.

One of the most frequently reported causes of food-born illness is Salmonella. It can exist and grow in feed and food such as meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products. The EU and the USA have set tough targets for the reduction of prevalence of certain Salmonella serotypes. Testing for the presence of these most dangerous and frequently occurring serotypes is mandatory.

Unique microbiological expertise

Food safety is a theme that has broad relevance within DSM. First of all, it is relevant for the units that produce food ingredients such as enzymes, vitamins and flavors. All these products must be produced and delivered in a safe way, and they must also be processed into end products in a safe way. DSM furthermore contributes to the food safety of other food products by means of preservatives and screening systems for food products to detect antibiotic residues and Salmonellas.

The DSM microbiologists are regularly asked for advice about the microbial safety aspects of a new product. On the one hand we want a product that is safe, without pathogens or toxins excreted by microorganisms and on the other hand the product should not spoil too soon. These are two totally different things, which are often mixed up. Safety is the most important one and relates in particular to the presence or absence of pathogens, micro-organisms that make people sick, such as Salmonella. Most pathogens will not spoil the food; many pathogens will not even grow in food products; they are just there waiting till they end up in your body where they will multiply and make you sick.

Food safety testing

For products of animal origin, such as meat, fish and milk, DSM supplies several diagnostic tests by means of which the safety can be checked. These are the Delvotest® product range for dairy only and the Premi^®Test and Premi^®Test Salmonella for all other matrices.

Premi^®Test

The Delvotest^® and the Premi^®Test both detect the presence of antibiotic residues above a certain concentration, the former in milk and the latter in meat, fish, eggs, feed, urine, blood and honey. Francoise de Goeijen, global business development manager Food Safety for DSM Nutritional Products says: 'The Premi^®Test is the only fast and effective antibiotic residue-screening test for antimicrobial substances in meat, fish, eggs, feed, body liquids and honey. PremiTest is fast, results within 4 hours, easy to use and cost-effective. The Premitest is AOAC and AFNOR certified and is used in most national governmental surveillance programs.

With growing concern about the ever increasing application of antibiotics in the production of food of animal origin, and growing worldwide concern about the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria, more control regarding the usage of antibiotics takes place by the industry. The test requires minimum investment and can be performed on site. It gives farmers, breeders and veterinarians a quick and inexpensive way to reliably screen livestock before sending them to the abattoir. In addition to the existing test done at a later stage on meat, PremiTest effectively offers the industry a tool to guarantee the quality of meat throughout the supply chain".

Premi^®Test Salmonella

The Premi^®Test Salmonella also is unique in its kind.  While other Salmonella tests only indicate the presence or absence of Salmonella, this test determines which serotype is involved. Salmonella occurs in more than two thousand different serotypes, which can make humans sick. EU law requires serotyping; our test gives the result at once, preventing expensive and time-consuming additional testing.

The Premi^®Test Salmonella is a patented combination of multiplex PCR and simultaneous detection of the PCR products on a diagnostic microarray. The test uses specific DNA fragments to identify the Salmonella serotype. It can detect 300 serotypes and can currently identify 100 serotypes as well as Salmonella Bongori.

Results can be expected within 1 working day from the enrichment and isolation phases. Consequently, if a sample is positive for Salmonella, the Premi^®Test Salmonella will provide the serotype within 7 hours!

There are several installations of Premi^®Test Salmonella with different applications running in Europe, the USA and Latin America: these range from integrators applying our method to reduce contamination Salmonella in the chain to laboratories, both private and governmental, whose aim it is to provide quick serotyping results.

Premi^®Test Salmonella is filed for the OIE-certification (World Animal health Organization) and AOAC/Microval validation is in progress.

Premi^®Chain

Moreover, serotyping may help to pinpoint the source of contamination. Salmonella contamination can occur anywhere in the food chain; from primary agricultural products, to breeders and grower farms, hatcheries and any other place in the food chain. In order to trace contamination accurately, specialised skills are required, such as sampling of materials and expert knowledge of relevant sampling spots. Rapid and reliable identification of the serotype is an indispensable tool for a successful Salmonella eradication program.

Premi^®Chain analyses all critical points in the production chain: from breeders to processing. So it is nothing magic, but it is based on sensitive sampling and an accurate Salmonella analysis, including serotyping of Salmonella isolates, to track & trace the possible contamination. Hereafter DSM advises subsequent management actions, such as:

• Controllingthe possible damage of existing contaminations and
• Organizing adequate cleaning & disinfection.

DSM has very good results at major integrations in Europe and Brazil, where this program is already implemented.

For more information send an e-mail to: info.premitest@dsm.com