An indigenously manufactured food and water-borne pathogen detection kit, which will help determine what causes food poisoning and common food-borne infections, and water-borne infections, was launched here on Thursday.
It will detect five pathogens — Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
Prepared by the National Institute of Nutrition, the technology has been transferred to Bio-Serve Biotechnologies, which is experienced in dealing with molecular reagents.
This easy, user friendly and rapid detection system will be useful not only for maintaining the food safety standards but also to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, which reports on food poisoning outbreaks and to diagnostic laboratories in government as well as private sector.
To be available in the market within the next 6-9 months, the kit will bring down the cost to less than 30 per cent as compared to the imported systems being used now.
In India, it is very difficult to estimate the extent of the problem of food-borne diseases and only the information on food poisoning outbreaks is available.
However, studies show that about 13 per cent of deaths among children are due to diarrhoea, which is caused essentially by consumption of contaminated food and water.
Another kit launchedUnion Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also launched the indigenous ELISA kit, which will be used to measure serum ferritin in blood or iron content, the deficiency of which leads to anaemia.
