Omics Methods For the Detection of Foodborne Pathogens

Foodborne disease is a serious and largely preventable public health challenge, specifically described as a global burden. Results from recent WHO estimates show that; 1 in 10 people across the world become ill following the ingestion of contaminated food, 420,000 deaths result from foodborne disease annually, with children below 5 years of age accounting for almost one-third of the total. It is apparent that there is a constant need to develop new methods, as well as refine existing approaches, for the detection and analysis of foodborne bacterial pathogens and food disease outbreaks, especially with the emergence and global threat of antibiotic resistant strains, in order to reduce the burden of foodborne bacteria. Here, in this short overview we offer a brief background introduction to the potential role of omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics) approaches and look at some of the recent research undertaken using these methods for the analysis of some of the most important foodborne bacterial pathogens. Omics can be said to have much potential for the detection of foodborne pathogens, as well as monitoring contamination and disease outbreaks, particularly when integrated with each other but especially so when incorporated within emerging and vitally important current and future technologies and resources such as Cloud computing.