Researchers have urged a change in the way microbial food safety is considered. Experts from the Quadram Institute, the University of East Anglia, the Royal Veterinary College, and Massey University called for more holistic approaches that assess the risks and monitor changes in microbial communities as a whole and across the food chain. They want to see increased adoption of genomic surveillance to help keep ahead of bacterial threats and hazards as they emerge.
Scientists urged governments and international agencies to dedicate resources to genome-based surveillance. Currently, most such surveillance is based in well-resourced areas, but making the food supply chain resilient to future shocks needs a global response, they said in an article in Nature Reviews Microbiology . There has been a past tendency to focus on individual bacterial species known to pose health risks but bacteria are complex and exist in interacting communities of microbes, said experts.
Part of the solution The team highlighted whole genome sequencing and metagenomics as useful tools that, combined with microbial surveillance schemes and insights from the food system, can provide authorities and businesses with information to address risks and implement new food safety interventions across the supply chain. Metagenomics gives a full picture of what’s present in a particular environment. Genetic fingerprinting can help identify the sources of outbreaks, linking genetically identical strains of bacteria.