Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a large number of foodborne outbreaks and food product recalls in many countries. The ability of the pathogen to survive and/or grow under unfavorable conditions and the development of resistant strains with new virulence factors, represent a formidable challenge to food processing industries in marketing safe food products. The use of bacteriophages has been emerged as a promising technology to enhance food safety. For biocontrol in the food industry, phages are currently being delivered by spraying the product, which has some limitations. To reduce dissemination of bacteriophage in the food processing environment, which may ultimately give rise to phage resistant host cells, oriented immobilization of phage on low cost, solid substrates like paper may be a good alternative to provide persistent and effective control of potential pathogens. Immobilization would also help to enhance the sensitivity of detection of the target pathogen using phage-based detection approaches. In this context, this presentation will discuss briefly our trials of using immobilized phages to develop phage-based bioactive paper for detection and control of foodborne pathogens