Contaminated food causes over 48 million illnesses, and 3,000 deaths annually in the U.S.  Unfortunately, food processing facilities and markets often lacks the necessary tools and knowledge to prevent, and assure the quality of their products.   Therefore, there is need to develop simple, yet robust, pathogen differentiation methods. Surface enhanced Raman scattering is emerging as a promising tool for microorganism detection and quantitation.  The work presented herein uses low cost, field portable metal nanocomposites as Raman probes for the trace and ultra-trace detection of of Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus spp. in dairy products and water. Characterization and analysis of the microorganisms SERS signal as function of the pH and matrix composition is presented.  The viability of the developed substrates for routine analysis of food microbes is discussed.

Metal/polymer nanocomposites as vibrational probes for the sensitive identification of <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Lactobacillus spp</i>

245th National Meeting (2013)

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Metal/polymer nanocomposites as vibrational probes for the sensitive identification of Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus spp