The War On Food Pathogens: Numbers Are Knowledge

By Lisa Leier-McHugh, Roka Bioscience

We live every aspect of our lives by numbers. Numbers and calculations rate, rank, grade, condemn and save us every day. This hit home recently when a member of my immediate family was battling multiple myeloma. It was amazing and simultaneously terrifying, the new world of diagnostic numbers he and those close to him were immediately thrown into. New results and benchmark numbers were constantly being compared as my family member tried to understand the meaning of a particular protein value and its relationship to this indicator or that. White count levels and the appropriate number of stem cells that would be needed for a successful transplant became part of everyone’s new daily vernacular. On the day he learned remission was achieved, the group text from the oncologist visit said, “Beta 2-MG = 4 YEAH!” We all knew that the number “4” was a great value, and he was there.

Thinking about that challenge and how absolutely critical those numbers were, I began to ponder the challenges faced in our own “War on Pathogens”, specifically with Salmonella. A recent mandatory reduction of Salmonella prevalence in raw poultry products has prompted a massive effort by producers of comminuted parts to meet the new compliance requirements and maintain a satisfactory category standing. After the completion of a 52-week sampling period, FSIS will publish the performance category of each establishment online. If there is sufficient evidence of poor process control at a particular plant, the agency may post this information much sooner.