Listeriosis and Salmonellosis are two of the most common foodborne diseases. Consequently, an early and accurate detection of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. in food products is a critical concern of public health policies. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop rapid, simple, and inexpensive alternatives for pathogen detection in food products. In this study, mid-infrared spectroscopy has been successfully used to confirm Listeria species and the presence of Salmonella isolated from food samples. This methodology showed to be very sensitive and could be a rapid alternative to detect these important pathogens, allowing to obtain results in a few minutes after previous growth in selective media, avoiding the confirmation procedures that delay the achievement of the results for up to 2 days.
Keywords: Foodborne bacteria; Infrared spectroscopy (IR); Listeria monocytogenes; Principal component analysis (PCA); Salmonella spp.