SASKATOON – The gene that makes fireflies glow is being used by University of Guelph researchers to test food for deadly bacteria like salmonella and E. coli which can lead to food poisoning, “hamburger disease” and meningitis in humans.
The ground-breaking method that uses the luminescent lux gene to “light up” infected regions of eggs, chicken and other meats is quickly gaining a reputation as the least costly, most efficient approach to food inspection in North America, according to the Ontario university’s food sciences professor Mansel Griffiths.
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“The beauty of this method is that it’s cheap, easy and more sensitive,” said Griffiths.
Research in the last four years has uncovered a method where the lux gene is introduced into a virus. When the virus infects the host cell of food that is carrying deadly bacteria, the enzyme produces the same light reaction that makes a firefly glow, only on a lesser scale.
Inspectors then use light imaging systems called luminometers to detect disease-causing micro-organisms in food, Griffiths said.
“If you’re looking at meat or eggs, the image analyzer will light up and produce a reading. Only organisms carrying the lux gene are capable of emitting light and it is that light produced by the enzyme that allows us to detect the deadly organisms.”
The meat industry is shifting away from visual testing because microbiological methods have proven to be more objective, he said.
The lux gene test is an ideal tool to be used under the recently introduced international food inspection system known as Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points. HACCP identifies points in the chain of food production where contamination and growth of potentially harmful organisms can occur and then ensures those points are tightly monitored.
Griffiths said he has been contacted by firms interested in commercializing lux gene technology to make food inspection kits.
