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Evolving virus detection technology to enhance food safety and security

US researchers are exploring the next generation of virus detection technology in the hope of enhancing food safety and security.

According to 2024 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year, around one in six of the US population will get a foodborne illness. As a result, more than 120,000 people are hospitalised and 3,000 die from foodborne illnesses.

As most foodborne illnesses are preventable by improving food safety practices, the Healthy People 2030 programme – a US initiative that sets data-driven national objectives to improve health and wellbeing – has made one of its goals to spur interventions in producing, processing, and storing food.

However, the latest 2023 data from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network indicates that more work is needed within the food sector to meet the Healthy People 2030 goals to lower foodborne illnesses.

Now, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst are exploring the role of virus detection technology in food safety. Their work focuses on detecting viruses that infect humans and that can be transmitted through food and the environment.

“Foodborne viruses are estimated to be the leading cause of foodborne illnesses in the US and globally, and so detecting them in foods can help potentially reduce their transmission,” Matthew Moore, associate professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, told Ingredients Network.

Virus detection: A daunting prospect

Detecting viruses in today’s F&B industry is not without its challenges.

“The challenge of effectively concentrating the viruses from foods without introducing inhibitors and doing it in a rapid and cheap manner is a major hurdle we still face,” said Moore.

Often, viral contamination occurs at low levels in foods and the environment. Research indicates that even though consuming the food could make a person ill, it does not take many viruses to infect a large number of people, or a low infectious dose.

Similarly, this can also occur for specific bacterial pathogens. However, with bacteria, the affected foodstuff can be added to culture media to increase the number of bacteria in the sample. This makes it easier to detect pathogens – a process known as enrichment.

It is not as feasible for viruses in food, though, and so, the sector is left with a “needle in a haystack” problem. Laboratories need to concentrate viruses from a large complex food sample.

“This is challenging as it can be hard to do effectively with some types of strategies, and/or you can end up co-concentrating stuff from the foods that inhibit downstream detection,” Moore said.

RT-qPCR – a method used to detect and quantify RNA, also known as quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction – is considered the leading downstream detection method. However, it can be limited in its ability to subtype viruses (identify specific strains) – a crucial aspect for attributing a source or transmission and identifying an outbreak for any foodborne pathogen.

This is a particular problem for noroviruses, which are both prevalent and highly diverse, indicating a cluster of cases. Scientists, however, need to confirm they are the same subtype to know they are related to the same transmission source before they can identify the same subtype in the suspected source to understand its cause.

“It is due to all of the challenges that there is less utilisation of detecting viruses in foods and the environment compared to other bacterial pathogens, and why more research is needed into ways to effectively, cheaply, and rapidly concentrate and detect them in foods and the environment,” Moore added.

Developing the next generation of virus detection methods

The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s laboratory has several ongoing projects related to the concentration of viruses from food samples, including the development of non-pathogenic bacteria that can be used as a cheap, rapid, and effective capture reagent for viruses.

It is also running projects on magnetic liquids, specifically magnetic ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents, to concentrate viruses from food.

“There is a lot of great work being done in the academic space to develop the next generation of methods to better detect viruses that will increase industry testing for these pathogens,” said Moore.

The team is also exploring a microfluidic nanolitre isothermal amplification device for digitised pathogen detection, as well as molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs).

Moore confirmed that as well as it being extremely stable, the team collaborated with engineers in the UK to develop it as part of one of the first USDA NIFA International Partnership Grants.

Their scientists are also developing new detection technologies. One involves the utilisation of a novel nanopore technology. While it is not sequencing-based, Moore said it displays very promising potential for rapidly detecting and subtyping viruses, along with other contaminants in food.

In addition to being difficult to detect, several other properties of foodborne viruses contribute to their status as a leading cause of illness.

“For instance, they can be difficult to kill,” Moore said. Many of the active ingredients in commercial disinfectants can be less effective against these bacteria and enveloped viruses, such as influenza and coronavirus.

They are very stable on surfaces and do not require many particles to cause illness, so disinfecting them on surfaces and food is also important.

“There is a whole other area of research trying to better understand ways to inactivate these viruses as well,” Moore added.