Potentials and limitations of molecular diagnostic methods in food safety

Genes & Nutrition

Table 1 Limitations and advantages of molecular diagnostic techniques

	CONS	PROS	Application examples
NASBA	Needs the bacteria to be viable	Cheap	Detection of enterotoxin related genes from Bacillus sp. in milk [18]
NASBA	Needs the gene to be expressed RNA handling might be troublesome	Sensitive
TaqMan	Cost effective for a limited number of DNA species	Easy to use	Detection of Salmonella sp. in ground meat [14]
TaqMan	The number of simultaneous DNA species detectable is limited by the fluorophores SNP detection not always reliable	Quick result	Detection of Salmonella sp. in ground meat [14]
High density microarrays	Expensive	Detects the highest number of DNA species simultaneously	Assessment of E. Coli pathotype [44]
High density microarrays	Slower than NASBA and TaqMan PCR	Detects the highest number of DNA species simultaneously	Assessment of E. Coli pathotype [44]
LDR-UA	Slower than NASBA and TaqMan PCR	Highest performance in SNP detection	Detection of GMO contamination in food and cyanobacteria in water [4, 6]
		Highly sensitive
		Very flexible

ISSN: 1865-3499