Scientists have developed a patch with microscopic dissolvable needles that can inject bacteriophages, viruses that naturally attack bacteria, directly into foods where harmful microbes may be hiding.
Unlike chemical preservatives, these phages target only dangerous bacteria including E. coli and Salmonella, leaving beneficial microbes untouched. This is a high tech nanoscale search and destroy kind of mission, phages built strategically for identifying specific bacteria.
The tiny needles pierce just below the surface of foods, allowing the phages to reach bacteria that the usual surface spray treatments may not reach. Once inside, the phages infect the harmful bacteria, reproduce and burst the bacterial cells open, stopping the contamination from spreading any further. Just one fingernail-sized patch applied to a 200-gram piece of raw beef or cooked chicken cleared 99.9% of E. coli. That is equivalent to about 2 serving sizes!
Researchers believe this approach could significantly reduce food-borne illnesses. Luckily for the consumer, this has no noticeable changes to a food's taste, texture or appearance.
This breakthrough could be especially useful for frequently purchased items like fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and ready-to-eat foods that are difficult to fully sanitize. Because bacteriophages occur naturally in the environment already, researchers feel this is a promising alternative to relying exclusively on antibiotics or harsh chemical sprays.
Much more work is needed to see how this technology can be scalable to be able to support the demands of the current food supply chain and maybe one day end up in grocery stores.
This work also highlights how biology-inspired engineering could make the global food supply safer and more efficient without adding synthetic ingredients or toxic chemicals. 132.7 billion pounds—almost one-third of all food produced for humans in the United States—is wasted each year, and meats are among the top food groups wasted at 15.3 billion pounds.
Here in Virginia, where agriculture and food production are major industries from the Shenandoah Valley to the Eastern Shore, innovations like this could be a game changer for reducing food waste and a higher quality of food safety for both farmers and consumers.
Some food for thought.
