Yersiniosis is one of the most common foodborne poisoning diseases and is caused by Yersinia enterocolitica bacterium. In this study, researchers from the University of Helsinki and Seoul National University have identified a bacteriophage that could infect and eliminate Y. enterocolitica. The published work can be found in the International Journal of Food Microbiology.
Foods that are known to transmit the disease like milk, grilled and raw pork were inoculated with Y. enterocolitica. The team then provided a fHe-Yen9-01 phage treatment and monitored both the bacteria and phages.
"Phage treatment was effective in inhibiting bacterial growth in food, while the number of phages in the food grew, indicating that phages infect bacteria and grow in them also when refrigerated," says Mikael Skurnik.
The researchers then performed the same experiment with different kitchen utensils and found that the phages effectively inhibited bacterial growth again.
In the future, decontamination with phages may well be part of the routine in processing food.
"One option is a phage mixture effective against several bacteria, such as the Salmonella and Campylobacter species, as well as the most common food poisoning bacteria in the gut. This mixture could also be administered in a preventive manner to farm animals, for example, mixed in their drinking water," muses Skurnik.