Quantitating Phage Efficacy in Ready-To-Eat Meats

Andrew Chibeu; Sampathkumar Balamurugan

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8940-9_18

Quantitating Phage Efficacy in Ready-To-Eat Meats

Methods Mol Biol. 2019:1898:207-214. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8940-9_18.

Authors

Andrew Chibeu^{1

2}, Sampathkumar Balamurugan³

Affiliations

¹ Guelph Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 93 Stone Road West, Guelph, N1G 5C9, ON, Canada.
² Parmalat Canada, London, ON, Canada.
³ Guelph Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 93 Stone Road West, Guelph, N1G 5C9, ON, Canada. balamurugans@agr.gc.ca.

PMID: 30570736
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8940-9_18

Abstract

Bacteriophages are being applied in biocontrol of bacterial pathogens in foods and food processing environments. There is need for the development of standardized protocols to quantify the effectiveness of phage preparations in reducing food-borne pathogens on foods. Here, we present a procedure for the verification of the effectiveness of a phage preparation in reducing Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat (RTE) meats. The protocol is designed taking into account real-world scenarios and avoiding common errors reported in previous phage decontamination assays.

Keywords: Bacteriophage; Biocontrol; LISTEX™ P100; Listeria monocytogenes; Ready-to-eat meat.

MeSH terms

Bacteriophages / genetics*
Colony Count, Microbial
Food Contamination / prevention & control
Food Handling
Food Microbiology / methods*
Listeria monocytogenes / pathogenicity
Listeria monocytogenes / virology*
Meat / microbiology*
Meat / virology
Meat Products