Food scientists have developed a new,
rapid and low-cost method for detecting bacteria in water or a food sample.
Once commercially available, it should be useful to cooks using fresh fruits
and vegetables, for example, and aid workers in the field responding to natural
disasters.
The method is a sensitive and reliable
bacteria-detecting chip that can test whether fresh spinach or apple juice, for
example, carry a bacterial load. The chip, used with a light microscope for
optical detection, relies on a "capture molecule,"
3-mercaptophenylboronic acid (3-MBPA) that attracts and binds to any bacteria.
The chemical detection method, "surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy"
(SERS), relies on silver nanoparticles. The techniques are now in the patenting
process.
See:
Brooke Pearson, Alexander Mills,
Madeline Tucker, Siyue Gao, Lynne McLandsborough, Lili He. Rationalizing
and advancing the 3-MPBA SERS sandwich assay for rapid detection of bacteria in
environmental and food matrices. Food Microbiology,
2018; 72: 89 DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2017.11.007
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle
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Pharmaceutical Microbiology