The challenge
Food-related infections are common throughout the world, in particular in resource-limited countries. The World Health Organization estimates that 600 million people, or nearly 1 in 10 worldwide, fall ill after ingesting contaminated food, and 420,000 die each year. Millions of people are affected. Ingesting food that is unfit for consumption may in some cases lead to death.
Foodborne diseases are generally infectious or toxic in nature. They are caused by bacteria, viruses, toxins, parasites and chemical substances that enter the body through contaminated food or water. Using diagnostic tests, bacteria such as Salmonella or Escherichia coli can be detected during food processing.
Foodborne pathogens spread very easily due to globalization and global food production and supply chains. Food safety crises transcend national boundaries.
Faced with the increasing demands of legislators and consumers, the food processing industry is organizing and implementing control, certification and traceability procedures.
More than 200 diseases can be transmitted
via food
The bioMérieux product offering
At each stage of production, from raw materials to finished products, bioMérieux offers a comprehensive range of solutions designed for industrial microbiological control:
- Food safety - safety criteria:
- Detection of pathogenic microorganisms (VIDAS®, VIDAS® UP and culture media ranges such as CHROMID® and the GENE-UP® molecular biology system);
- Microorganism identification and strain typing to track and address the source of product contamination (API®, VITEK® 2 COMPACT and VITEK® MS ranges).
- Food quality - hygiene criteria:
- Enumeration of "hygiene indicator" bacterial flor (TEMPO® and pre-poured media ranges);
- Detection of microorganisms in beverages (CHEMUNEX® and BACT/ALERT® ranges).
bioMérieux offers a wide variety of testing solutions that have been validated by national and international certification organizations such as AOAC International and AFNOR. A growing number of accredited laboratories value the accuracy, reliability and rapid time-to-results of our high-performance solutions.