Evaluation of BioFire® FilmArray® Gastrointestinal panel for the detection of norovirus in complex food matrices

Noroviruses (NoVs) are a leading cause of foodborne diseases (FBDs). Detecting infectious NoV in food is not possible because cell culture approaches are not sensitive enough and compatible with such complex matrices. For this reason, the available standard methods that can be used in routine screening only enable the detection of NoV genome in food, without distinguishing between infectious and non-infectious viruses. Moreover, NoV FBDs commonly involve other microorganisms (viruses, bacteria), which complicates diagnosis and investigation, hence the advantage of using sensitive multiplex PCR-based methods. The BioFire® FilmArray® Gastrointestinal Panel (BF-GIP) was evaluated as an alternative method for detecting NoV genome in food, compared to the ISO 15216-2 standard method and in compliance with ISO standard 16140-2. A total of 60 vegetable-based food samples were tested. BF-GIP sensitivity (62.7 %) was close to that of the standard method (64.4 %). BF-GIP generated a false positive rate of 10 %. For the overall level of detection, no significant difference was shown between BF-GIP and the standard method. Food sample processing methods that generate high virus recovery rates are essential to improving NoV detection with BF-GIP.