FDA approves viral defense against Listeria in RTE foods
Zachary Richardson. Food Chemical News.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Agra Informa, Inc.
FDA has approved a food additive petition that will allow for the use of a
mixture containing bacteriophages (bacteria-eating viruses) in combating
Listeria monocytogenes, marking the first time such an approval has been issued
in the
Bacteriophages are viruses that target and infect bacteria with their own
genetic material. They "hijack" the bacteria's DNA, forcing it to
produce more bacteriophages, which then lyse (destroy) the bacteria by bursting
it from within.
The approved mixture, manufactured by Intralytix, Inc., contains six
varieties of bacteriophages, each specific against different strains of
Listeria, including strains responsible for foodborne illness.
"They all target Listeria monocytogenes, but we collected almost 300
different samples of Listeria and then we took those samples and tested our
phage library against them," Intralytix president and CEO John Vazzana
told Food Chemical News. "Based on that testing, we selected the six
phages that we believed would give us the best protection," he said.
According to FDA, "The phage preparation will be used as an
antimicrobial agent to control L. monocytogenes in the production of
ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products. The phage preparation is directly
sprayed on the surface of the RTE food articles at a level of approximately 1
milliliter of the preparation per 500 square centimeters of food surface area
just prior to packaging."
"The target market has always been RTE foods," Vazzana continued.
"During the four years of the approval process--which is a very long time
for an approval--we've seen the problems with Listeria in RTE foods growing. If
you back to the records that the CDC maintains, 99% of the Listeria
monocytogenes cases have been in RTE foods, so that's always been what we've
targeted," he said.
The preparation must comply with the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the
Poultry Products Inspection Act, FDA noted, both of which are regulated by
USDA, and must be listed on the label as an ingredient. FSIS has been convinced
of the treatment's safety, FDA said.
Oddly enough, phage technology is both time-tested and novel, Vazzana said.
"Phage technology has been around for 100 years; it was used in the
FDA noted that while it was the first time the agency has allowed the use of
a phage preparation in foods, phages are utilized on crops and in pesticide
applications.
The technology could also represent another line of defense in light of
increasing rates of antibiotic resistance, Vazzana suggested. "Phages are
the most ubiquitous organism on the planet today--they're nature's way of
controlling bacteria. One of the things that we think is an advantage ... is
that they are very specific, those same phages will not lyse or kill any other
strain of bacteria, unlike antibiotics, which are very broad-spectrum. Several
bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, and that's a problem that's
growing every day," he said.
E. coli and Salmonella in the crosshairs
Intralytix is currently conducting research on similar treatments for other
foodborne pathogens, notably E. coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella, Vazzana said.
"Preparations for both have been developed, and we're going through some
efficacy testing and screening at this point. We would hope to file a petition
with FDA in the next four to six months for the E. coli product," with the
Salmonella preparation to follow.
Those products would make the leap from RTE foods to those that require
cooking, he added. "We're testing putting [the E. coli preparation] on
beef before it would be ground up; the belief is and so far the tests indicate
that we can eliminate the presence of E. coli by grinding the phages into the
meat. We believe that we could significantly reduce the E. coli contamination
and then maybe my wife will be able to make rare burgers again," Vazzana
said.
Moreover, he added, the approval process for bacteriophage products may be a
little less grueling in the future. "Four years is an extraordinarily long
time to get a food additive approved, but this is a new technology, and frankly
we were kind of neophytes in regard to what FDA expected from us," he
explained. "We now feel like we know what FDA wants and FDA knows what we
can provide."
Zachary Richardson
zachary.richardson@informa.com
