Microbes, as a target
Scientists are developing biosensors that can find and identify bacteria, such as E. coli, faster and cheaper — maybe even at home.
OUR world is teeming with tiny bacteria, most of them utterly safe for us to swallow. A few, however, are anything but — such as E. coli O157:H7, at the root of the recent spinach illness outbreak; or salmonella, which is the reason we are told to avoid raw eggs; or Listeria monocytogenes, a troublesome microbe with a fondness for growing on soft cheese and luncheon meats.
"Washing produce with water is one of the most effective methods of removing unwanted bacteria," says food microbiologist Scott Martin of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The problem is you can't remove all of them."
To improve another line of defense, microbiologists and bioengineers are working hard to develop biosensors that can detect and identify different species of bacteria in food.
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