Recent and the Latest Developments in Rapid and Efficient Detection of Salmonella in Food and Water

Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne diseases. Gastroenteritis caused by nontyphoid Salmonella is still a major infectious disease in the world. About 95% of Salmonella infections are caused by ingestion of contaminated food and water. Rapid, sensitive, and efficient detection and identification of Salmonella from foods and water are critical for minimizing the spread of outbreaks caused by this pathogen. These methods can be applied to track the food source of contamination or by early diagnosis of the infections in a clinical setting. Culture-based methods for detection of Salmonella are laborious and time-consuming, typically taking 5-7 days to obtain a pure culture and serovar identification. In the past few decades, molecular-based technologies have greatly shortened the time for detection and identification of bacterial pathogens from food and water, and drastically increased the specificity and sensitivity of the assays. In this review, we report an update on the development of rapid and efficient methods for the detection and identification of Salmonella in food and water, focusing on the approaches for concentration of Salmonella cells and viable cell detection, as well as the advantages and drawbacks of these methods.