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Article: High-tech tools for food safety sleuths. (includes related article)
- Article from:
- FDA Consumer
- Article date:
- November 1, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A geneticist couples two DNA strands, one natural from bacteria and one syn-
thetic, and forms a hybrid that positively identifies a species of food-borne bacteria responsible for causing severe illness and death. In another laboratory, a chemist, using mass spectrom- etry, tracks the amount of an unwanted chemical in fermented products to parts per billion. Both are FDA food scientists working on the persistent problems caused by contaminants that sometimes creep into what we eat and drink. Often the problem is bacterial, causing rapid development of illness. Other times it's chemical, with illness occurring immediately or at some future time because of ...