ABSTRACT
As opposed to traditional methods for detection of food-borne pathogens that rely on growth in culture media followed by isolation and confirmatory tests, rapid methods are various types of assays that accelerate analysis, are of higher throughput, may be automated, are relatively simpler to use and generally do not require elaborate instrumentation. However, although the method itself may be rapid, an enrichment step is still required to allow for growth of the target pathogen to detectable levels. A major goal in testing for food-borne pathogens is to develop better techniques to recover and concentrate pathogens and reduce or eliminate the enrichment step to actually achieve rapid, real-time detection.
