The application of molecular biology to food microbiology has transformed the science and practice of food safety detection over the past four decades. What once required days of culture-based enrichment, selective plating, biochemical confirmation, and serotyping can now be accomplished in hours using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods — and in some cases, in a single comprehensive analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS). This revolution is not merely one of speed; it represents a fundamental shift in the depth, specificity, and predictive power of microbiological analysis in the food industry.
This book, the tenth in the Advanced Food Safety and Microbial Risk Analysis Series, provides a rigorous and comprehensive treatment of molecular detection methods in food microbiology. It is designed for food microbiologists, laboratory scientists, food safety professionals, quality assurance managers, regulatory scientists, and advanced students who seek to understand not only the principles of these technologies but their practical application, validation requirements, regulatory acceptance, and integration into modern food safety management systems.
The text begins with the molecular biology foundations essential for understanding all detection methods, then systematically addresses conventional PCR, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), isothermal amplification methods, hybridization-based approaches, immunomagnetic separation, and biosensor technologies. The second half of the book addresses next-generation sequencing in depth — covering whole genome sequencing (WGS), metagenomics, amplicon sequencing, and bioinformatics workflows — and explores their integration into food safety surveillance, outbreak investigation, antimicrobial resistance monitoring, and regulatory decision-making.
Throughout the text, the authors have endeavored to balance scientific rigor with practical utility. Method validation, quality assurance, regulatory standards, and interpretation of results receive dedicated treatment. Case studies drawn from real-world applications — outbreak investigations, environmental monitoring programs, and international surveillance networks — illustrate how molecular methods are deployed in high-stakes food safety contexts.
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- Alfi Sophian (Author), 2026, Molecular Detection Mastery: From PCR to Next-Generation Sequencing, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1714447
