Food Safety and Regulatory Measures

Biography

Biography: Vidhya Ramaswamy

Abstract

Listeriosis, an infection caused by Listeria monocytogenes has increased worldwide, particularly among the vulnerable group including people over 60, cancer patients, pregnant women, paediatric group, who have weakened immunity systems and even sometimes ending as life threatening food borne illness. Listeria causes about 1600 infections in the US annually, 3-4 outbreaks, commonly spread through unpasteurised cheese, dairy products, Deli meals, hot dogs and favourites like Sabra Classic Hummus. The junk foods category represents the range of chilled and ready to eat foods which are not safe on food standards, as the microbes grows even in refrigeration temperatures with twenty times more of risk on consumption. Listeria can be managed by hygienic preparation, storage and handling of food standards with strict legal legislations for the entire food supply chain from primary productions through the manufactured food and value added products in the market outlets. Foodomics, a new comprehensive approach envisage to studies to integrate food and nutritive domains through the application of omics technologies to improve consumer’s wellness, health and knowledge. The present study has extensively worked on the nutraceutical quotient and the susceptibility of microbial load in terms of causing food borne illness, with special reference to Listeria monocytogenes, further adding to annotate the genomic and proteomic contents, facilitating to develop protocols and procedures for handling, preparation and storage for a range of food products which are delicacies across the world. Nonetheless, Whole genome sequencing is a new technique that replaces current methods, speeding detections and investigation to stop an outbreak of disease in its tracks, cutting off the cumbersome confusions in analytical and screening methods in the eyes of food safety and management. The entire genome has been sequenced which has crucial contributions to understand why some bacterial are so deadly and others are not, leading the way toward vaccines, antibiotics and other disease-fighting strategies. Proteomic profiling and the comparison of host-Listeria interactions (Human and Listeria genome respectively) has been carried out which also helped us to report potent drug targets with specific receptors in the Listeria/Human genome. To conclude, food is life and can be made safe on technological interventions with strict regulations and awareness in food flow in production to consumption.