New OriGen 'TraceBack' Service

  • The product recall and contamination market continues to evolve and adjust to developing exposures and new risks. It is clear that companies who look to manage the risk of recall in a holistic manner will be best prepared to survive a recall crisis.
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New OriGen 'TraceBack' Service

A successful recall risk management program must include upfront quality control, management of vendors and contracts, and the ability to respond effectively and efficiently to a crisis.

Our expertise can be the difference in maintaining the safety of your products, and protecting the trust of your customers. The significant recall and contamination incidents in 2016 spanned all product categories from dairy and poultry to cereals to vegetables, many of which can affect company results. As supply chains expand across the globe and become ever more complex, your quality control methods are put under ever increasing strain. Projecting the exposure to a product recall or contamination can be a difficult task not only for the company at risk. Each year hundreds of products are recalled. So now with the rapid developments in scientific technological advances with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and specifically WGS (whole genome sequencing) this scientific technique can aid the food industry range from source tracking of bacterial contaminants to the identification of spoilage communities, an application to real world problems in the food industry.

To ensure our customers are always one step ahead we have developed a new service which will support them even further in the battle for food safety. OriGen is designed to help a business identify the source of any bacterial contaminations tracing the bacteria back to the original source ultimately protecting you from any future product recalls and brand reputation.

Our service compares the WGS (whole genome sequences) of samples taken of the bacterium of interest from around a facility, and potentially over time, to suggest whether multiple sources of infection are present or if a facility has a persistent infection. Additionally, we are able to store the genome data and reanalyse when new information comes to light. Every time a customer uses the service we can reanalyse with all of their previous data, and tell them if their situation is changing (new strains have been introduced) or remains the same (their hygiene processes are ineffective).

OriGen Pathogen Detection Testing (Traceback)

- All analyses are fully validated and performed to current industry standards.

- All our tests are conducted under a WGS, this includes salmonella, listeria, campylobacter, e. coli.


Pioneering technology

This pioneering technology can deliver invaluable information for a food business trying to deal with a long term contamination problem.

Aid Investigations

Can aid in investigations to avoid costly recalls, reducing waste and saving money

On-hand Instructions

Immediately following a notification by your in-house testing team or a report of a contamination outbreak, contact Fera, we can send you a kit with instructions

Whole Genome Sequencing

Using state of the art technology - WGS (whole genome sequencing) we can distinguish the pathogen strains

Isolate the source of contamination

Specialist leading experts can isolate the actual source of the contamination tracing it back to either a raw ingredient or even a piece of equipment .

Identify New Strains 


Every time you use the service we can reanalyse all of the previous data, and inform you if the situation is changing (i.e. new strains have been introduced).

Specialists 

We are specialists in unusual matrices, method development and validation

Technical Advice

Technical advice and support pre and post analysis

National Reference Lab

Fera is the National Reference Laboratory in 7 different areas

The OriGen service is currently available for Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli but has the potential to be rolled out to a range of bacterial species, so please get in touch if you have another organism of interest. Pricing and turnaround depend on a number of factors such as availability and batch size, so please contact us to discuss your individual needs.


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