Combat Pathogens (FEAST Newsletter #21, May 2006)
The Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence (AFSCoE) was granted $AU 125,579 through the last round of ISL to participate in the FP6 PathogenCombat Integrated Project. PathogenCombat will provide new information and methods to the food industry on how to reduce the prevalence of new and emerging foodborne pathogens. AFSCoE is the leader of the Work Package that will estimate microbial food safety risk.
The project started in April 2005 under the Danish coordination of Professor Mogens Jakobsen in Copenhagen. The consortium gathers 44 partners that includes 24 research partners and 17 industry partners, of which 10 are food production SMEs. The project has 4 research and development pillars that range from developments in understanding of interactions at the molecular and cellular level in the food chain, the detection of pathogens, the development of techniques to control and prevent colonisation of pathogens in food animals and in processing environments, and the development of food safety management systems. Integral to the project is the development of networks, training activities and consumer awareness to transfer the new information and methods generated.
Early results from the project include the development of oligonucleotides that will identify ochratoxin A biosynthetic genes in Penicillium nordicum, the establishment of a porcine cell line to study host-pathogen interactions, the profiling of the microbial ecology of food with culture independent techniques and an advanced method for RNA isolation from Listeria for application in studies of the expression of virulence factors.
AFSCoE Role
Professor Tom McMeekin Co-Director of AFSCoE is the leader of the Work Package (WP) that will model microbial population behaviour throughout the food chain and assess the microbial food safety risk. Tom has extensive experience in food microbiology with particular interests in microbial physiology and ecology, particularly predictive microbiology.
The risk models developed in the WP will address the priority concerns of the SMEs and assist in the development of food safety management systems. Information and data developed in earlier work packages will be applied in the development of these models in addition to data and information from the participating SMEs. Stochastic models will be developed as these have proved to be powerful tools for understanding complex systems with variable elements. To estimate the level of microbial contamination at the time of eating from levels known in earlier stages of the chain requires quantitative knowledge of the responses of microorganisms to the environmental conditions they experience in food. Predictive microbiology models satisfy this objective and will be embedded into farm to fork risk models.
It is recognised that more efficient approaches to microbial risk assessment in food safety are required to provide information and tools to risk managers in a more timely and cost-effective manner. The risk assessment team at AFSCoE will focus on the development of robust generic approaches to support decisions in food safety management.
Acknowledgment Tom McMeekin and Sue Dobson
