NGS APPLICATIONS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY
NGS in Food Industry
The applications of NGS have been of tremendous success in the food industry. NGS with the help of Bioinformatic tools has revolutionized food microbiology. SNP and MSLT based WGS analysis for strain discrimination show concordant results for phylogenetic clustering and are complementary to each other. In food microbiology NGS is mainly used in two ways:
1. WGS
Determination of the Whole Genome Sequence of any single cultured isolate (bacteria, virus, or fungi),
2. Metagenomics
Here, NGS is applied to a biological sample to generate sequences of multiple microorganisms present in that sample.
Benefits of using NGS in the Food Industry
- WGS has more accuracy rate than other traditional molecular typing tools. It is now being widely used as a prospective surveillance tool for foodborne illness.
- The use of metagenomics in food safety and quality improvement is still in its nascent stages and promises exciting opportunities for predicting the presence and emergence of pathogens and spoilage microorganisms based on changes observed in the microbial communities. It also has the potential to characterize unknown microbiota associated with food.
- WGS can also be used for predicting traits such as virulence or antimicrobial resistance of a pathogen, or the ability of a spoilage organism to break the preservation barriers of a product.
NGS technology in the future will have a huge impact on food microbiology. Pathogen detection, microbial profiling, genetic data mining, genotype-phenotype linking, determining the fate of starters and pathogens over food manufacturing and ripening, and predicting product shelf life, etc., will be the realm of these high-throughput technologies.
Current and future applications
Commercial sequencing companies like Eurofins Genomics that specialize in food testing offer NGS services to food supply chains to ensure that the incoming raw materials are the desired, unadulterated product, thereby helping combat food fraud. NGS application can simultaneously address multiple issues in food safety and authenticity by providing exhausting controls which may be pertinent when dealing with new providers to ensure maintenance of consumer trust and brand reputation.
The optimal way to take advantage of NGS would be when these techniques are incorporated into routine analytical checks for food safety, quality and authenticity at several levels of food supply: as a control laboratory, as a producer, and as a retailer. Eurofins Genomics India Pvt Ltd along with Eurofins Analytical Services India Pvt Ltd is working together to provide these services.
For more details on our Food testing using NGS please Contact us https://www.eurofins.in/genomics/enquire-now/ .