bioMérieux’s Augmented Diagnostic Approach

Running an efficient and effective environmental pathogen program requires an investment, both financial and educational. However, for some running a food business, economic justifications may be needed to undertake the expense. Validating this expenditure is simple: Pathogens are the primary threat to the global food industry.

Food safety news from around the world makes it clear — the most harmful food safety incidents are all linked to pathogen contaminations. Over the last few years, products like chocolate, infant formula and lettuce have all been in the news for the wrong reasons, that is: making people ill (and worse).

Investigations by regulators show that in several serious food poisoning incidents, the pathogen in the product had also been found in the factory environment; often before any consumers fell ill. This means that monitoring food plant environments for pathogens can give an early warning signal before products and customers are affected.

Recently, an infant formula manufacturer approached bioMérieux for help to understand and mitigate C. sakazakii contamination, which was found in its environment, raw material, in process, and finished product.

The contamination cost the customer almost a full week of halted production and over $2 million dollars in lost sales, variable and fixed operational expenses, and root cause analysis cost, each time C. sakazakii is found. When standard mitigation practices did not resolve the issues, they turned to bioMérieux’s Food Safety and Quality division for additional help. The manufacturer shared 144 C. sakazakii isolates, collected over a 12-month span, that were found in the factory environment.

The bioMérieux Food Safety and Quality team employed pathogen mapping — a combination of sequencing, bioinformatics, data science and process expertise — to analyze and provide insights to the customer about its persistent C. sakazakii challenge.

bioMérieux’s Augmented Diagnostic approach through robust pathogen mapping diagnostic investigation tools and expertise enabled the company to quickly understand their issues and make data driven decisions to effectively address the problem. The company’s focus and diligence, coupled with a collaborative partnership, not only saved the company millions of dollars of lost production time, but also ensured they were delivering a safe product to their most precious customers.

This same collaborative process has been implemented with other bioMérieux customers across the globe, demonstrating that bioMérieux has become the trusted partner in augmented diagnostics for the food industry worldwide.