Current State of Biosensors Development and their Application in Foodborne Pathogen Detection

Foodborne disease outbreaks continue to be a major public health and food safety concern. Ensuring the safety of food prior to retail distribution by testing products promptly can protect consumers from foodborne diseases. F ast, sensitive, and accurate detection tools are in great demand. Therefore, various approaches have been explored in the past few years to find a more effective way to incorporate antibodies, oligonucleotides, phages, and mammalian cells as signal transducers and analyte recognition probes on biosensor platforms. The ultimate goal is to achieve high specificity and low detection limits (1-100 bacterial cells or pico-nanogram levels of toxins). Besides, advancement in mammalian cells and bacteriophage-based sensors led to their ability to detect not only low levels of pathogens but also to differentiate live from dead ones. Combining different biotechnology platforms enabled practical utility and application of biosensors in foodborne pathogen detection. However, further rigorous testing of biosensors from complex food matrices is needed to ensure their utility in point-of-care need and for outbreak investigations.