PFGE: importance in food quality.
In late 19 century, great interest has arisen for food quality. This is referred as absence of pathogens in food (safety for consumers) and as nutritional quality of food (organoleptic characteristics). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is, among the molecular techniques developed in the last years, one of the most reliable, discriminative and reproducible technique. It can be used in clinical field for the identification of pathogens and the origin of outbreaks, and in food microbiology for the identification of pathogens (food borne disease surveillance) or of microorganisms responsible for the organoleptic characteristics of food. The present article shows some useful patents related to PFGE and importance in food quality.
Vernile
Anna
A
Department of Food Science, Agricultural Faculty of Foggia, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy. a.vernile@unifg.it
Giammanco
Giovanni
G
Massa
Salvatore
S
D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods*; D005502:Food / Q000592:standards*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005524:Food Technology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance