bioMérieux, FDA collaborate to advance food safety diagnostics

U.S – bioMérieux, a global leader in in vitro diagnostics for over six decades, has joined hands with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to create advanced tools for combating food-borne pathogens.

Miguel Villa, Senior Vice President, Industrial Applications, Americas at bioMérieux, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration.

“bioMérieux is incredibly proud to enter into strategic, collaborative research with the FDA. Our mission is to improve public health worldwide and after 30 years of serving the North American food safety and quality space, we’re looking forward to innovating with industry leaders in real-time to solve the country’s most complex public health problems with the xPRO Program,” he said.

The partnership is specifically with the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and its Offices of Applied Research and Safety Assessment (OARSA) and Regulatory Science (ORS).

The initial projects under this collaboration will leverage novel technologies to address several key challenges in food safety.

Efforts will be focused on improving the isolation of Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli (STECs), enhancing the detection of Cyclospora cayetanensis, and simplifying microbial characterization methods for food-borne pathogens, including Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

These projects will be developed through bioMérieux’s xPRO Program, an initiative launched in 2021 that delivers state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics to the food, beverage, and dietary supplement industries’ quality and safety departments.

Vik Dutta, Senior Director, Scientific Affairs and Market Access, Americas at bioMérieux, highlighted the importance of innovation in addressing food safety and security challenges.

“bioMérieux is committed to innovation and the xPRO Program is the result of an ever-evolving and increasingly nuanced landscape of existing and emerging food safety and food security challenges. The FDA’s ongoing transformation under the proposed Human Foods Program makes this a natural collaboration and we look forward to extensive collaboration to minimize risk and further public health.”

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