North American meat sector target of Listeria technology
By Jane Byrne, 14-Apr-2009
Netherlands based company, EBI Food Safety,
has announced that it has teamed up with US distributor World Technology
Ingredients (WTI) to accelerate the penetration of its GRAS approved phage
based product, Listex, into the North American meat and poultry sector.
Dirk de Meester, business development director at EBI, said that Listex
received Generally Recognised as Safe (GRAS) approval by the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) in 2006 for its use with cheese and was subsequently
awarded GRAS affirmation in 2007 for use with all products that are susceptible
to Listeria including hams, hot dogs, fish and ready-to-eat products.
He told FoodProductionDaily.com that as WTI has long standing relationships
with North American meat and poultry processors as well as comprehensive
technical expertise in the control of food pathogens, it is ideally placed to
explain the benefits of Listex in this geography.
According to de Meester, Listex kills rather than inhibits the pathogen and
in doing so does not affect the organolepetic properties of the food such as
taste, texture, odour or colour, thus eliminating any requirement for the trade
off between food safety
and quality commonly associated with other methods of pathogen reduction.
He said that the phage
based product is easy to apply, through spraying or submersion, and is used on
meat products such as hot dogs after the post-lethality step; he said it is
also recommended for use with fish after the filleting stage to prevent Listeria
getting a hold.
Recall prevention
With the increasing emphasis by consumers and regulators on food safety, and
the prospect of costly recalls, fines and brand damage, processors are
constantly on the lookout for quicker and cheaper ways of preventing bacterial
contamination of their products.
According to an analysis by Frost & Sullivan, phage technology is poised
to become a food industry standard for ensuring products do not leave
processing plants laden with dangerous pathogens.
Bacteriophages
Bacteriophages are natural micro organisms, but have been harnessed only
recently for use to enhance food safety.
To food pathogens like Listeria, bacteriophages are the viral hit
squads of the microscopic world. They are viruses that target bacteria, rather
than human, plant or animal cells.
For every bacterium, there is a phage that likes to latch on to them, take
over their life processes and multiply. The baby phages then burst out to
attack other nearby targets, killing the host cell.
EBI Food Safety is also in the process of developing phages against
pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, added de Meester.
