{"id":11013,"date":"2020-04-07T13:32:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T19:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/?p=11013"},"modified":"2023-05-04T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T16:18:35","slug":"preventing-foodborne-outbreaks-rapid-detection-method-real-time-pcr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/preventing-foodborne-outbreaks-rapid-detection-method-real-time-pcr\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Foodborne Outbreaks: Rapid Detection Method Using RT-PCR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Using qPCR for food safety testing is economical<\/h2>\r\n
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The supply and quality of food today is constantly under risk. Rising concerns among consumers have as encouraged governments to act in the form of inspection levels to reduce food contamination and spread of disease.<\/p>\r\n

Food sources including meat, poultry, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and processed products have come under increasing focus. New trends in emerging economies towards processed meat and convenience food coupled with government initiatives to reduce the food diseases have created a surge in the development of analysis techniques in the Food Safety and Testing industry.<\/p>\r\n

Food safety tests are an expensive business<\/h2>\r\n

Food safety typically covers the entire value chain including handling, processing, storage and packaging in order to prevent foodborne illness. Conventional food analysis techniques used to detect microbial contamination like protein-based immunoassays, ELISA, lateral flow strip\/protein strip tests and culture-based assays are not only time-consuming but costly, less accurate and labour intensive as well. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) offers a perfect solution for test agencies.<\/p>\r\n

RT-PCR \/ qPCR<\/h2>\r\n

Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), also known as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), is a rapid and cost-effective quantitative method to detect the presence of targeted DNA-segments in samples and helps in determining both accidental and intentional adulterations of foods by biological contaminants. RT-PCR addresses the limitations of traditional food analyses in terms of sensitivity, range of analytes, multiplexing ability, cost, time, and point-of-care applications.<\/p>\r\n

A range of targets, including species of plants or animals used as food ingredients, foodborne bacteria or viruses, genetically modified organisms and allergens, even in highly processed foods, can be identified by RT-PCR, even at very low concentrations. Microfluidic RT-PCR eliminates the separate sample-processing step to create opportunities for point-of-care analyses<\/p>\r\n

Advantages of RT- PCR<\/h2>\r\n