The use of bacteriophage‐based systems for the separation and concentration of Salmonella

Techniques for the separation/concentration of micro‐organisms from background food matrices can be applied to increase the speed of analysis and ease of isolation and detection of target micro‐organisms. One recent example of such a technique is the immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedure that has been used for the separation of specific micro‐organisms from foods. This paper describes the use of a novel biosorbent consisting of a Salmonella‐specific bacteriophage (phage) immobilized to a solid phase that was used for the separation and concentration of Salmonella from food materials. This work has shown that a Salmonella‐specific phage‐based biosorbent could remove Salmonella from culture fluid and separate Salmonella from suspensions of other Enterobacteriaceae. The ease of production of phage, high affinity of phage–cell interaction and the ability of phage to infect host cells in heterogeneous environments indicates the potential of such a biosorbent as the basis for a reliable separation system in food microbiological analysis.