Recently, media around the world reported an alarming situation of a lethal microbial contamination in a well reputed food product, resulting in thousands of tons of product recall, inflicting the particular company- known to be an international giant in food processing industry; and its reputation an almost irreversible damage as a safe food supplier. Although the company professionals worked around the clock to limit the international impact of the contamination crisis, several countries including Sri Lanka ceased importing their products, due to potential health hazards that are likely to be caused upon consumption of the product.
Considering subsequent the lessons the world learned from the contamination scare, we can clearly see an increasing demand for food quality and consumer safety. Knowing that the consumer safety was put at stake several times in a row, people are at the verge of questioning every gold- standard, reliable conventional technique used to determine food quality and safety. The consumers are at haste, wondering if the products they think is safe are REALLY safe, and demand for increased transparency, sensitivity and accuracy in microbiological assessment techniques. Therefore, every manufacturer needs to be armed with an ideal quality control procedure when battling the war of delivering an entirely harmless consumer product.
“Sensitivity” is defined as being “Quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals, or influences”. Thus a rapid technique that can identify and profile complete spectrum of microorganisms with highest level of possible accuracy would be the best to address the market need, since the product quality and safety are the major and ONLY all-time concerns of the manufacturing market. With a sensitive technique being available, not only the manufacturer will be able to increase the quality of their products but also to effortlessly enhance the value of the product to make it stand out from the rest of the competitor brands .Being recognized as a safe food provider definitely uplifts the image of a company, ultimately leading to a stabilized reputation.
Doors are open now for newer techniques for microbial identification in Sri Lanka, enabling manufacturers to maintain high levels of standards in product quality.
