The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA’s NIFA) has awarded $611,000 to University at Albany researchers to develop a rapid, portable, colorimetric Salmonelladetection kit for food products. If successfully created, the test will reduce the time it takes to detect Salmonella in food from several days to as little as six hours.
The project will focus on detecting S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium, the two serotypes that are jointly responsible for half of all human Salmonella infections in the U.S. The team’s nano-diagnostic system will also serve as a template for foodborne bacterial detection beyond Salmonella.