Recent development in rapid detection techniques for microorganism activities in food matrices using bio-recognition: A review

Microbial contamination is an increasing concern in the food industry. In order to understand the effect of microorganisms, the study of their characteristics and behavior in various platforms is of prime importance. Over the years, time-consuming and labor-intensive, culture-based enumeration techniques have become obsolete for real-time applications, and increasing concerns on foodborne outbreaks necessitate rapid, on-site and sensitive methods for the detection of microorganisms in food matrices. In the current review, a brief discussion about biomarkers in microorganisms and bio-recognition ligands commonly used for detection assay are presented. The molecular interaction between biomarkers and ligands is critically evaluated and recent developments in bio-recognition based detection techniques for analyzing microorganism activity in complex food matrices are reviewed. The microbial activity in food can be detected by analyzing the specific biomarkers of microorganisms such as nucleic acids, proteins, antigens, and metabolic products. Recent bio-recognition ligands in detection techniques such as biosensors, lateral flow assay, and microfluidic devices can improve the selectivity in detecting cells from complex food matrices. The emerging bio-recognition based methods bridge the gap between culture-dependent enumeration and molecular methods, and they could be employed in the industry to ensure food safety. However, the development of a validation protocol for all the emerging methods is necessary to assess their efficiency in real samples.