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P.E.I. Food Tech centre implements BAX system

January 6, 2011  By Fruit & Vegetable


January 3, 2011,
Charlottetown, PEI – New equipment will allow the Prince Edward Island Food
Technology Centre (FTC) to have a quicker turnaround time for the testing of
routine pathogens said Innovation and Advanced Learning Minister Allan
Campbell.

January 3, 2011,
Charlottetown, PEI – New equipment will allow the Prince Edward Island Food
Technology Centre (FTC)
to have a quicker turnaround time for the testing of
routine pathogens said Innovation and Advanced Learning Minister Allan
Campbell.

“This system lets us
tell clients sooner if their food is safe for shipping to their markets,” said
Campbell. “The new system will save valuable time for our staff, and allow our
organization to offer an improved service to clients.”

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The FTC’s microbiology
laboratory has adopted the BAX detection system that detects pathogens such as
Salmonella in ready-to-eat food and in food processing plant environmental
samples.

“The Food Technology
Centre
is pleased to provide a quicker result for our clients,” said Campbell.
“This allows our clients to ship their food products to their markets sooner,
making Island companies more competitive.”

The system can test for
pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) and provide a result to the
client in only three days – a result two days quicker than before acquiring the
new system.

The system uses
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect bacteria and other microbes with
certainty. PCR-based technologies can detect the presence of as few as one
bacterium.

“This system is widely
used by other food safety laboratories,” said Minister Campbell, “It is a
cost-effective system that provides fast and reliable results.”

It is the specificity of
the primers incorporated in the test that reduce the processing time and steps
in the analysis required before deeming samples negative. Sample processing
times for pathogens, such as Salmonella, can be reduced from four days to 30
hours for a negative sample and from seven days to four days for a positive
sample.

“The Food Technology
Centre
continues to support Island companies in producing food products that
are of the highest quality,” said Minister Campbell. “We help clients in a
multitude of ways from product and process development through to quality
assurance.”

The FTC’s microbiology
lab troubleshoots for clients and assists them to find food safety risks and
develop appropriate risk management systems. Lab tests make it possible to
evaluate the safety and quality of any food product such as seafood This
information is used to help clients in exporting their products, and modifying
their products and processes to achieve optimal quality.

Other components of the
FTC include an analytical lab which provides services such as nutrition
labeling for north American markets, a product development laboratory for
product development and trials, a pilot plant for scale-up and process
development, and a natural products extraction suite for the extraction of high
value products.

The award-winning BAX®
detection system is a fast and accurate method for detecting pathogens or other
organisms in food and environmental samples. The system breaks down samples at
the genetic level, using the power of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to
detect bacteria and other microbes with certainty.

The system uses DNA
molecular biology in an automated, standardized format to quickly and
definitively screen for food borne pathogens.

Based on real-time PCR,
the BAX® system reliably detects the presence of pathogens, GMOs, plant and
animal matter in food and animal feed.

BAX system is a
breakthrough genetics-based screening method that detects target bacteria in
raw ingredients, finished food products and environmental samples.

The automated system
takes little space and looks like a desktop computer. More than 200 BAX systems
are already in use by governments, food companies and laboratories in 30
countries.

In addition, the global
diagnostics industry overall totals $27 billion annually, with the food diagnostics
industry representing more than $1.7 billion.


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