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Pathogens transmitted in food products cause an array of diseases, from mild gastroenteritis to severe invasive infections with high mortality rates, such as listeriosis. Food sources regularly attributed to human infections include dairy, fish and meat, ready-to-eat foods, vegetables, and salads.

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In 2018, the financial burden of foodborne illnesses in the US was estimated to be $17.6 billion. In addition, many high-profile foodborne outbreaks have made national news headlines leading to recall, food waste, regulatory sanctions and reputational damage.

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Preventing contaminated goods moving from production lines into the community requires comprehensive surveillance along the entire food chain, constant pathogen profiling, rapid tracing and isolation of contamination sources.

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The Genpax platform includes specific resources to address food and animal-related human pathogens, rapidly identifying contaminating strains and comparing them to previous knowledge to identify high-risk strains, and short-term and persistent sources of infection.

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The platform also enables the recognition that coincident isolates are not related, or not those known to be associated with farm or process environments, thereby avoiding unnecessary shutdowns, recalls, and food waste.