Molecular barcode of foodborne disease precursors to improve biosanitizer performance - Phase II

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Increasing global population, globalization, and new living standards have considerably changed the foodmarket. Food is transported over long distances, stored and processed before being distributed to consumers,resulting in the emergence of food safety issues. Food diagnostic currently relies on the detection of modelpathogens and quantification of microbial load. Very few attempts have been made to develop more holisticdiagnostic tools, providing early signal of food susceptibility to pathogens, based on the abiotic and bioticfeatures of food matrices. In a previous NSERC-Engage grant, our team demonstrated that microbialassemblages associated with chia seeds are organized and could provide early signal of contamination risk byallochthonous Enterobacteriaceae. Here we propose a second phase to that previous project to characterize themicrobiome of hemp seeds imported from different countries. Fresh seeds and conditioned seedsdecontaminated using a proprietary process developed by Agri-Neo Inc. will be sampled and analyzed. Using acombination of co-occurrence network analyses, we seek to identify keystone microbial species that facilitateor impede occupation of hemp ecological niche by potential foodborne pathogens. The identification ofantagonist and synergetic species will lead to the development of a genetic barcode indicator to evaluate foodsusceptibility to pathogens. This strategy could revolutionize conditioning food process treatments and qualitycontrol, while helping to determine the commercial values of imported food destined to public markets, lowerthe loss of contaminated food products and the incidence of recall warnings.