Arrayit Corporation has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement or CRADA with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where the company and the USDA Agricultural Research Service will develop and validate a rapid, portable, cost-effective and high-throughput detection system for the surveillance of multiple bacterial and viral foodborne pathogens including hepatitis, E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and Norovirus.
The expected outcome is a commercial test that will be widely deployed throughout the lifecycle of food production and distribution to ensure that our food supply is safe for consumption.
The USDA seeks to expand economic opportunity through innovation to better nourish Americans by working cooperatively with the private sector.
Its US$146 billion budget in 2014 includes US$123 billion of mandatory programs and $23 billion of discretionary spending for programs including food safety.
Both parties will utilize Arrayit’s patented and proprietary DNA microarray platform and USDA’s patent pending method to detect DNA sequences present in potentially life-threatening foodborne pathogens that periodically contaminate fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and dairy products.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, foodborne illnesses afflict one in six Americans annually resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations, 3,000 deaths and more than US$150 billion in economic losses.
