Go Green! Using bacteriophages to enhance food safety from Pharm to PHork

In the face of recurrent foodborne outbreaks and product recalls, the need for safer foods remains in the public interest. The extended overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other antibacterial agents in the food industry have further exacerbated the spread of foodborne pathogens with the rise in antimicrobial resistance. This increased demand for safer food products with clean label drives the continuous search for natural alternatives to control the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Bacteriophages (bacterial viruses) have emerged as a legitimate antibacterial alternative with a wide scope of applications which continue to be discovered and refined. From farm to fork, bacteriophages have been shown as a viable option to treat diseases in animals and plants, reduce biofilm formation and contamination in food processing environment, and increase the safety and shelf-life of food products. Moreover, bacteriophages have been used in the development of rapid, sensitive and specific biosensors for various bacterial targets. In this presentation, our research group effort in isolation, characterization and application of lytic phages to tackle selected bacterial pathogens will be presented. Suggested approaches to overcome the challenges of phage applications as biocontrol and detection tools throughout the food supply chain will also be discussed. This presentation will start with developing a spry dried phage-carrier biopesticide to control Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight disease in apple and pear. Then, the potential of Listeria lytic phage to disperse Listeria monocytogenes biofilm will be evaluated using different techniques. Finally, a smart and high throughput approach for developing a phage cocktail to mitigate the risk of Salmonella in poultry products will be presented.