PassPork: A multi-pathogen pre-screening tool for safer pork products

Within the European meat sector, pork is the most produced and consumed meat as well as the most exported. However, pork is also responsible for a high number of verified outbreaks per year, with Salmonella, Yersinia, Listeria and Campylobacter representing practically all verified pork-associated infections in the EU in recent years.



While large enterprises in the pork industry may be able to afford the regular application of expensive tests; for SMEs, which account for 94% of businesses in the European meat industry, these methods are mostly beyond economic reach, thus impeding their capability to comply with strict regulations.



The main objective is to develop, validate and test an affordable, robust, rapid and reliable multi-pathogen detector for use by non-technical staff in the pork industry.



The device will build upon a combination of immuno-chromatography, fluorescence labelling and optical scanner technologies, together with specific monoclonal antibodies, which will reach detection limit in the range of 10-100cfu/ml.



The manner in which meat samples are collected and pre-treated has great effect over the accuracy of any subsequent test for the presence and count of pathogens. DTUs role is to identify the most effective sampling method and to design sample collection and preparation protocols to be applied in field conditions.



DTU will also be part of the in-field demonstrations of the final prototype which are conducted to collect end-user feedback and recommendations.