Among the physical, chemical and biological hazards that could arise with respect to food safety, bacterial contamination has been one of the main concerns in recent years. Bacterial contamination in low moisture foods (LMFs) was an emerging threat which used to draw less attention as LMFs were considered at low risk of such a hazard. Bacteria can survive in low moisture environments and cause foodborne diseases once they enter the digestive system. Common detection methods such as ELISA and PCR are not well suited to LMFs, as most of them operate under aqueous environments. In this study, a Dual Immunological Raman-Enabled Crosschecking Test (DIRECT) was developed for LMFs using a nano-scaled surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) biosensor platform and multivariate discriminant analysis with a portable Raman spectrometer. It could provide a limit of detection (LOD) of 102 CFU/g of bacteria in model LMFs, with a detection time of 30-45 min. It has the potential to become a quick screening method for on-site bacteria detection for LMFs to identify food safety risks in real time.
Keywords: SERS; bacterial detection; low moisture foods.