Detecting salmonella in food

Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo is part of an international research team looking for ways to detect salmonella in fresh produce  before it’s sold.

The project is called Salmonella Syst-OMIC.

Laurier's role is trying to understand the approximately 2,500 strains of salmonella.

"It can persist on the surface of the vegetables, [but] whether it's thriving and growing, that's one of the things that we are trying to understand," Joel Weadge, a professor in the faculty of biology at Wilfrid Laurier, told CBC reporter Craig Norris of Kitchener..

Using this information, they want to be able to knock down common strains of salmonella by combining viruses, that are not dangerous to humans, and create a spray.