Market Opportunities

Resource, Mar 2009 by Alocilja, Evangelyn

Biosensor technologies in the food industry

Although America's food supply is unmatched in quality and quantity, we face new challenges involving biological threats to the food supply chain from intentional and natural contaminations. Food production and processing are becoming increasingly centralized. Americans eat in restaurants more often and eat more imported foods, some of which come from across the globe virtually overnight. Furthermore, novel pathogens are emerging, and familiar ones are growing resistant to antibiotic treatment. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, foodborne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, including 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, in the United States each year. Researchers at the USDA Economic Research Service estimate that the annual cost of human illness caused by foodborne pathogens is $5.6-$9.4 billion. Hence, foodborne pathogen testing is performed constantly and often by various laboratories, including on-site laboratories at food-processing plants. On-site rapid tests for foodborne pathogens produce results quickly, shortening the length of time that products must be held in inventory and subsequently lowering storage cost. Rapid detection systems will minimize the need for the estimated 60,000 U.S.-based food processors to perform lengthy microbial testing and expensive immunoassays on materials suspected of carrying foodborne pathogens. Additionally, if a recall is issued, onsite testing provides a rapid response time, thus reducing corporate liability costs.

Newsworthy and market-ready?

A recent development - rapid and on-site diagnosis -has received much attention due in part to its advantages: rapid, sensitive, specific, inexpensive, easy to use, and portable. A biosensor is an analytical device that is composed of a biological receptor in close proximity to a transducer, which is connected to a signal generator that converts the bioreceptor and target interaction into a measurable signal. Biosensors come in many formats: immunosensors, DNA sensors, aptasensors, enzymatic sensors, and cell-based sensors. This month's Resource cover shows the preparation of a DNA sensor.

The market for biosensor technologies is comprised of five segments: medical, environmental, food and beverage, bio-defense, and pharmaceutical research, with the medical applications overshadowing the other segments. The market size for global medical biosensor-based technologies in 2004 reached about $7.1 billion and is growing at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 percent. It is estimated to reach $11. 3 billion in 2009.

The market for pathogen-specific testing is expected to grow for all segments at 4.5 percent CAGR. Based on an estimate of a total market value of $563 million in 2003, a CAGR of 4.5 percent could mean $702 million in 2009. The best overall growth rate is predicted for the food and military segments, at an estimated CAGR of 6.0 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.

Rapid screening on the rise

Industry analysts expect that as regulations pertaining to pathogen testing continue to be adopted, the shift toward rapid screening methods will continue. The U.S. food industry performed around 144.3 million microbiological tests in 1999, as shown in table 1 . The processed food sector accounts for the largest number of tests, with over 52.2 million performed annually. This represents over 36.2 percent of total tests performed and is likely driven by the larger number of processing plants. The dairy sector has the highest testing rate per processing plant, averaging over 630 tests per plant per week. The beef and poultry sectors perform the least number of tests per plant, averaging 369 tests per plant per week and accounting for only 22.3 percent of all testing in the industry. However, the fruit and vegetable sector is currently the smallest of the four sectors, accounting for only 9.7 percent of testing. The fruit and vegetable sector is becoming more of a focus by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) and is expected to result in a substantial increase in pathogen testing in the next few years.

The combined U.S. sales of pathogen, pesticide, and GMO testing products used by food processors are projected to increase from $149.5 million in 2000 to $383.4 million in 2009 at a CAGR of 9.9 percent, as shown in table 2. Of the pathogen tests, bacteria are forecast to have the larger share (82 percent) of sales, as they are responsible for the bulk of illnesses and are routinely tested in food samples. Pathogen tests that screen for toxins are projected to have faster growth as well due to a growing recognition of toxins as health risks, especially in grains and fish/seafood, which are two fastgrowing food categories because consumers perceive them as healthy. The GMO testing market, which was worth $18 million in 2000, is expected to reach $64.2 million in 2009 (CAGR of 13.6 percent). Future legislation requiring mandatory testing of GMOs has the potential to significantly increase the market size.