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Abstract
The ability to trace fecal indicators and food-borne pathogens to the point of origin has major ramifications for food industry, food regulatory agencies, and public health. Such information would enable food producers and processors to better understand sources of contamination and thereby take corrective actions to prevent transmission. Microbial source tracking (MST), which currently is largely focused on determining sources of fecal contamination in waterways, is also providing the scientific community tools for tracking both fecal bacteria and food-borne pathogens contamination in the food chain. Approaches to MST are commonly classified as library-dependent methods (LDMs) or library-independent methods (LIMs). These tools will have widespread applications, including the use for regulatory compliance, pollution remediation, and risk assessment. These tools will reduce the incidence of illness associated with food and water. Our aim in this review is to highlight the use of molecular MST methods in application to understanding the source and transmission of food-borne pathogens. Moreover, the future directions of MST research are also discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by Science Fund for Young Scholars of Zhejiang Gongshang University, China (1110XJ130919) and Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Foundation, China (2009C33058). Special thanks go to Prof. Fang WH (Zhejiang University, laboratory of food-borne pathogens and food safety, Ph.D. of Helsinki University in Finland) for the fruitful suggestions on the topic and linguistic revision of the manuscript.