Pathogen and GMO Testing to Drive the Food Testing Market in Developing Countries

Food processing companies are increasingly turning towards food safety tests to ensure that supplies to consumers are free from all kinds of harmful pathogens. According to a new research report “Global Food Safety Testing Market Analysis,” by RNCOS, which is a market research company, the global food safety testing market is anticipated to grow stupendously in the coming years. Food safety testing refers to examination of food products for disease causing organisms, chemical residues, and other hazardous material. Food safety testing market holds a huge potential for further advancements. As globalisation of food supply heralds the globalisation of food safety, problems and solutions concerning food safety are no longer confined within the borders of a single country. Increasing public attention to microbiological hazards is also driving change in food safety industry. Rapid microbial testing is being extensively preferred all over the world, due to the advantages of accurate testing within less time.

Presently, many countries have shown their concern over food security. The governments are taking initiatives and stringent regulations have been put forward to ensure food safety in almost all the countries. The report has found that the market is presently dominated by Pathogen testing and the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) testing. However, as the laboratories become increasingly dependent on efficient screening strategies based on both multiplex protein and the DNA screening, application of a matrix approach to determine the need for more specific identification and quantification methods will gain momentum. As a result, the GMO testing will emerge as the fastest growing segment in food safety testing market. Further, the US, Europe, Canada, China, and Japan are the major geographical markets exhibiting healthy growth rates. The study indicates that the highest growth rate in the developing countries’ food safety testing market is likely to be observed for pathogen testing, followed by GMO testing, and testing of processed food & meat products.

Read more

U.S. Researchers Develop Rapid Diagnostic Test for Common Type of Pneumonia

University of Georgia researchers have developed a technique that can diagnose a common type of pneumonia within minutes, potentially replacing existing tests that can take several days for results. The researchers detected Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes atypical or "walking pneumonia," in true clinical samples with over 97 percent accuracy using a recently-developed nanotechnology- based platform. The findings were published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

"If you can make a positive identification from a 10-minute test, then appropriate antibiotics can be prescribed, limiting both the consequences in that patient and the likelihood that it will spread to others," said lead-author Duncan Krause, a professor in the department of microbiology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Krause and his colleagues built upon an existing technology called surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which works by detecting spectral signatures of a near-infrared laser as it scatters off a biological specimen. They were able to enhance the Raman signal by using silver nanorod arrays to detect the tiny bacteria in throat swab specimens. Krause compared the nanorod array to a brush with densely packed bristles, where each of the tiny silver rods extends out at a specific angle. The sample, such as bacteria from a throat swab, penetrates among the bristles, where the spectral signature produced by the laser is amplified and then analyzed by a computer program.

Krause noted that infections due to M. pneumoniae are very common yet difficult to diagnose. The bacterium is a major cause of respiratory disease in humans and the leading cause of pneumonia in older children and young adults."Walking pneumonia feels like a bad chest cold that will not go away,"he explained. "It can persist for weeks and even months and can cause permanent damage to the lungs if not diagnosed promptly. A delay in diagnosis extends the likelihood for complications as well as continued transmission of the infection to others." Krause said the device can be reduced to a size that could fit in a briefcase, although their testing is currently done only in a laboratory setting."Our hope is that when we begin to explore the capabilities of this technology, it can be applied in point-of- care testing,"he added."Then the impact becomes truly significant."

Read more

Rapid Isolation of Bacteria or Specific Target Cells

ProKyma Technologies Ltd, specialists in automated sample processing techniques, has won the Innovation in Diagnostics Project of the Year at the Northwest Biomedical Awards. Presented by ThermoFisher, the award recognises the potential of the companys technology for the rapid isolation of bacteria or specific target cells in situations where there are high levels of debris such as sputum and blood. Ongoing developments for the technology include the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) in sputum samples and the capture of Circulating Tumour Cells (CTC) in blood applications that could have an enormous impact in the diagnosis and management of these global killers.

The patented KymaSep system utilises a combination of magnetic and ultrasound forces (acousto-magnetic) to control magnetic beads in a flow-through chamber. The beads, which are coated to make them highly specific for the target bacteria or cells, can be captured and held on the side of the chamber during aggressive washing and then automatically resuspended and collected. The cells survive the process intact allowing them to be used for further analysis including microscopy and culture. Unaffected by background cells or debris, acousto-magnetic separation is suitable for a wide range of applications that have proved too challenging for traditional rapid methods, particularly those where target cells or bacteria are present in very low numbers. By processing much larger volumes than other techniques, KymaSep captures sufficient cells to produce highly concentrated samples.

There are 8.9 million new active cases of TB annually with nearly 2 million deaths, making rapid diagnosis a priority for healthcare providers around the world. ProKyma plans to develop a rapid detection test that can be used at the point of care. CTC analysis is rapidly emerging as an important tool for detecting certain cancers and monitoring response to chemotherapy. Conventional detection is complex and expensive and ProKymas technology will simplify testing and make it more accessible.

Read more

Oshkosh Gets $1.1 Million to Help Save Great Lakes

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has awarded UW Oshkosh four competitive peer grants totaling $1.1 million in an effort to help improve the quality of Wisconsin beaches along the Great Lakes shorelines. The projects are a collaborative partnership between UW Oshkosh, private business organizations, local municipalities and other educational institutions. The projects started this year and will continue for three years. Associate Dean for the College of Letters and Sciences and environmental microbiology professor Greg Kleinheinz is the principal investigator and will lead the projects, which will provide Oshkosh students with internship opportunities. The projects started this year and will continue for three years. Kleinheinz said three of the projects, which are sanitary survey projects, have the same scope of work while the fourth project is an establishment of quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction laboratories.

"The goal of the sanitary survey projects is to collect as much data on selected beaches in Wisconsin to look at what's causing microbial contamination," Kleinheinz said. "In order to do that staff, faculty and interns from UWO will be employed. Once we identify what the sources of microbial pollution are, some of those beaches will be chosen for beach redesign work. The ultimate goal is to prevent microbial contamination, and by doing that, we protect public health and make water quality better than it is today." Kleinheinz said the establishment of qPCR laboratories is an important step in reducing the time it takes to establish whether or not contamination is present in the water. "These are rapid tests to determine the microbial levels at the beach," Kleinheinz said. "Right now it takes 18 to 24 hours of lab time. The new methods that are coming out allow you to get results in two hours."

Traditional testing approved by the EPA takes place in several locations, including labs in Sturgeon Bay, Eagle River, Ashland and at UW-Manitowoc, according to Kleinheinz. "In a couple of years we'll move to those rapid test methods, so if you're in Wisconsin you'll be able to do a rapid test at your beach in a couple of hours which is really unprecedented," Kleinheinz said. Keeping the water safe at Wisconsin beaches is something Oshkosh student Linsi Whitman has hands-on knowledge of. Whitman, along with three other Oshkosh students, spent this past summer collecting water samples from 34 public beaches in Door and Kewaunee counties. Whitman said the work she and her fellow students did has had a great impact on the local communities. "This is a benefit to the community because, after the BEACH (Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health) Act, public beaches that surround the Great Lakes need to be monitored for acceptable water quality," Whitman said. "In addition, during the summer, families are able to check the status of the beaches online or by calling the health department of their county. This allows families to ensure that their loved ones are swimming in water with minimal contamination." Whitman said her internship has taught her that there is more to checking water for contamination than one might expect.

Read more

Green Light for Rapid TB Test

The World Health Organisation has approved a new rapid test for Tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB that will lead to results being available within 100 minutes. Using the rapid test health workers can make an accurate diagnosis of TB within 100 minutes compared to current methods that require patients to wait up to 48 hours for straightforward TB results and weeks for drug-resistant tests. Patients often die while waiting for these results, are lost to follow-up or go on to infect others while they wait to be placed on treatment.

Current treatment standards in most countries require of patients to give sputum at least twice after which sputum smear microscopy is used to make the diagnosis - a development that is more than a century old. If the result is positive the patient is put on treatment. Sputum smear microscopy is not always accurate especially in HIV-positive patients. Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's Stop TB Department said the new test was a major milestone in global TB diagnosis and care.

The WHO's stamp of approval for the rapid test comes after 18 months of painstaking testing to verify its effectiveness in diagnosing pulmonary TB and more difficult forms including drug resistant TB and TB aggravated by HIV. Implementing the fully automated NAAT (nucleic acid amplification test) could result in a three-fold increase in the diagnosis of patients with drug-resistant TB and doubling in the number of HIV associated TB cases in areas with high TB and HIV.

Added to the stamp of approval is a call made by the WHO for the easy to use rapid test to be rolled out as far and wide as possible under clearly defined conditions. It would be part of the national plans for TB and MDR TB care control. One of the key concerns has been affordability. The Foundation for Innovative and New Diagnostics, a co- developer, announced that it had negotiated a 75 percent price reduction with the manufacture, Cepheid for the benefit of countries most affected. Favourable pricing will be granted to 116 low and middle income countries with a high burden of TB as well as an additional reduction in price if there is high demand for the test. Dr. Giorgio Roscigno, FIND's chief executive officer said, there was a strong commitment to overcome all the barriers including those posed by money. "For the first time in TB control, we are enabling access to state-of-the-art technology simultaneously in low, middle and high income countries. The technology also allows testing of other diseases, which should further increase efficiency."

Read more

Scientists to Develop New Rapid Test in Fight Against Sexually Transmitted Infections

Scientists from the University of Southampton have secured funding to develop an ultra-rapid sexually transmitted infection (STI) detection system for clinics that can detect STIs in under 15 minutes. The Client (Clinic-based Infection Examination through Nucleic acid Technologies) detection system will use short fluorescently-labelled DNA sequences, called HyBeacons®, that are able to detect sections of DNA sequence with a genetic variation that identify the presence of an STI. The technologies are being developed by scientists from LGC, a leading chemical and biological analytical services and reference materials company, working in collaboration with the University of Southampton and OptiGene, who will refine and manufacture the desktop amplification device and assay (a test to find and measure the amount of a specific substance) for rapidly testing genetic markers for detection of STIs.

The project brings together researchers from across the University of Southampton with interests in development of novel molecular probes (Professor Tom Brown from the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences), the biology of chlamydia (Ian Clarke, Professor of Molecular Microbiology from the Faculty of Medicine) and development of point-of care molecular testing (Dr John Holloway from the Faculty of Medicine). Professor Ian Clarke says: "The combination of LGC and OptiGene together with the University of Southampton is a unique partnership between industry and academia. It brings together the critical components necessary for the development of a novel, sensitive, accurate and extremely rapid point of care test that will revolutionise STI diagnostics." Professor Tom Brown is working with LGC to produce a new generation of more powerful fluorophore molecules (a component of a molecule which causes it to be fluorescent) to enable the HyBeacons® probes to detect STIs with greater accuracy and speed. The Chlamydia Research Group, based in the University's School of Medicine who work closely with the HPA regional laboratory based at Southampton General Hospital, will use universally-conserved sequences from sexually transmitted bacteria as a basis for developing the Client tests. This team will also lead the collaboration in the design of the Client testing kits.

Read more

Food Safety Testing Market to Experience Strong Growth

MarketResearch.com has announced the addition of RNCOS's new report, "Global Food Safety Testing Market Analysis," to their collection of Food & Beverage market reports. Food safety testing refers to examination of food products for disease causing organisms, chemical residues, and other hazardous material. Food safety testing market holds a huge potential for further advancements. Food processing companies are increasingly turning towards food safety tests to ensure that supplies to consumers are free from all kinds of harmful pathogens. As globalization of food supply heralds the globalization of food safety, problems and solutions concerning food safety are no longer confined within the borders of a single country. Increasing public attention to microbiological hazards is also driving change in food safety industry. Rapid microbial testing is being extensively preferred all over the world, due to the advantages of accurate testing within less time.

According to the new research report, "Global Food Safety Testing Market Analysis," the global food safety testing market is anticipated to grow stupendously in the coming years. Presently, many countries have shown their concern over food security. The governments are taking initiatives and stringent regulations have been put forward to ensure food safety in almost all the countries. The report has found that the market is presently dominated by Pathogen testing and GMO testing. However, as the laboratories become increasingly dependent on efficient screening strategies based on both multiplex protein and DNA screening, application of a matrix approach to determine the need for more specific identification and quantification methods will gain momentum. As a result, GMO testing will emerge as the fastest growing segment in food safety testing market. Further, the US, Europe, Canada, China, and Japan are the major geographical markets exhibiting healthy growth rates. Our study indicates that the highest growth rate in the developing countries' food safety testing market is likely to be observed for pathogen testing, followed by GMO testing, and testing of processed food & meat products.

The report provides extensive information and rational analysis of the global food safety testing market. It has thoroughly examined current market trends, industrial developments, and competitive landscape to enable clients understand the market structure and its progress in coming years. The report also provides an insight into the segment-wise market trends along with an analysis of the regional level to provide an overview of developments taking place across the world.

Read more