Two new projects will develop new tests to rapidly detect E. coli in beef packing plants, Genome Alberta announced this week.
Genome Alberta held a funding competition to develop ways to quickly detect pathogenic E. coli. Current detection technologies require a culturing period of the samples, which can take anywhere between 18 and 24 hours, says Gijs van Rooijen, Genome Alberta’s Chief Scientific Officer.
“The idea of this particular competition was to develop a detection technology that would be much quicker so that within a single shift, within eight hours, you would actually take a sample and get results back. So the all clear would be given much sooner,” says van Rooijen.
