Augmented Diagnostics - Prevent the Risk of Microbiological Contamination and Help Increase Industrial Efficiency
Thanks to new approach offered by bioMérieux, cutting-edge technologies in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics and data science are now accessible for an operational management of food safety and quality program. Unlock new and actionable insights to help answer the most important questions, solve your challenges, and improve your operations.
For products at risk, preventing pathogen contamination such as Listeria monocytogenes or Salmonella is not only a key sanitation and regulatory issue, but also a key driver of industrial efficiency. As with all factors likely to impact line efficiency, microbiological control must be routinely monitored to avoid a crisis caused by a positive result detected in finished product samples. Since 2020, bioMérieux has offered a new approach: Augmented Diagnostics. This approach combines a suite of highly sophisticated and effective solutions available in the market, enabling site directors, industrial managers, and quality teams to go further in their production control right through to product release.
Augmented Diagnostics is based on an ecosystem of services and solutions, including the latest bioMérieux innovation: GENE-UP® TYPER. This strain typing method identifies kinship links between pathogens detected in the production environment and finished products. This technology, combined with GENE-UP® PCR-based technology, enables us to routinely determine high-reactivity contamination areas throughout the plant, from raw material reception to packaging.
GENE-UP® TYPER
The result is a practical approach to problem- solving. With the right diagnosis and the right decision at the right time, Augmented Diagnostics helps to cut lead times and costs.
Because nothing is more exhausting for teams - and costly for the company – than constantly managing incidents in “fire-fighting” mode. When it comes to microbiological contamination, as with many other industrial issues, sticking only to a “corrective action” approach is not the answer.
This lack of control ultimately undermines employee motivation and increases staff turnover, and when contamination causes a health crisis followed by a product recall, the brand image of the company could be impacted.
Cleaning an entire factory, dismantling every part of a process, without really knowing what microorganism is involved, where it comes from, what resistance it may have to biocides, makes the situation hard to control. Destruction of batches, prolonged stoppages of production lines, inflation of water and chemical consumption, demotivation of teams and deterioration of brand image can be mitigated. These losses can be avoided. How? By identifying the origin of the strain right from the start so you, can understand the contamination circuit and launch the appropriate corrective actions.
Answers to the most important questions! Has this strain already been identified? Does it come from a raw material or from the environment? Is it new or persistent? What is the contamination pathway? Is it cross- contamination within the laboratory? From the first positive detected, the innovative Augmented Diagnostics approach provides visibility.
A routine analysis for a result obtained in an hour. This is the result of innovation. With GENE-UP® TYPER, bioMérieux has automated the typing process, making it easier to implement on a routine basis.
This is a real advance on current technologies, which require specialized laboratories and weeks-long lead times. In practice, GENE-UP® TYPER requires only a few elementary manipulations for a laboratory technician to perform the sample’s GENE-UP® TYPER PCR.
The PCR results is then analyzed by a dedicated analytical tool: the AUGMENTED-DX platform. The GENE-UP® TYPER algorithm then uses a database of genomic sequences selected and enriched by bioMérieux bioinformatic expert team, combined with the company's proprietary data to translate the result. Its computing power will identify the "family” which enables us to identify the genetic "cluster" of the identified strain. By matching the strains detected in the finished product with those identified in the environment, ancestry can be determined. This makes it possible to identify the location of the strains, their routes of contamination, and to eradicate them by launching a targeted cleaning operation.
A valuable decision-making aid. The results can be viewed on the AUGMENTED-DX platform with web access.
These digital tools make it possible to collect all data points, put them together, and understand the phenomenon so that corrective action can be taken.
In concrete terms, the AUGMENTED-DX web application compiles typing results and can be interconnected with ENVIROMAP ®, another digital tool for automating the environmental control plan. The cloud-based software makes control points visible on the layout of one or more plants. Contamination zones can be tracked, as can the migration of strains within each zone. This simplified visualization enables problem areas to be identified quickly, and the appropriate cleaning measures can be implemented.
This tool helps you take the necessary actions to maintain production quality.
The better the company's data history, the more powerful the information delivered. Let's imagine that every strain detected as part of the environmental monitoring plan is typed. The day a contamination of the finished product occurs, the identification of its origin is immediate. This is why an Augmented Diagnostics analysis is designed for routine use.
As soon as contamination occurs, the results are entered into a database.
This is an example of an industrial customer who kept all pathogens detected over the last 20 years in a strain library. The day a positive was detected in a finished product sample, the customer was able to immediately determine the origin of the current contamination. The Augmented Diagnostics approach adds value to data over time.
In the event of a stop in production or, worse, a health crisis linked to contamination, the losses are exponential. Every day without identifying the contamination is costly. The value of a batch can run into the hundreds of thousands of euros, not to mention the loss of brand image, service rate penalties, and increased water and cleaning costs.
As soon as a company is faced with recurring contamination, the benefits of identifying its origin and investing in the Augmented Diagnostics approach is obvious.
For even greater expertise, bioMérieux offers its Pathogen Mapping service. In the event of contamination, the company will send their samples to bioMérieux for Whole Genome Sequencing.
Thanks to bioinformatics processing combined with scientific library work, it’s possible to identify the strain at the clonal level, the recency of contamination (as a function of the number of mutations), and the potential presence of resistance genes (the function of genes involved in resistance mechanisms to target molecules) allowing to have the right targeted actions against potential biocide, thermal or specific metal resistances.
Choosing an Augmented Diagnostics approach opens new opportunities.
Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, the development of new expert models, and the integration of additional data processing, new services are being developed. It will be possible to fine-tune environmental control sampling plans, detect weak signals, and eliminate unnecessary analyses. Thanks to this continuous improvement approach, bioMérieux will be able to manage food safety even more effectively.
DO YOU HAVE A CONTAMINATION IN YOUR PRODUCTS OR ENVIRONMENT? CONTACT US.
