Food Microbiology & Safety – Research Groups

Foodborne viruses cause high burden of diseases worldwide, even in small country like Singapore. The current detection methods of foodborne viruses still suffer from multiple limitations such as low viral extraction efficiency from foods and inability to discriminate between infectious and non-infectious viruses. Our work is to improve the current detection methods of foodborne viruses from the most relevant food types including berry fruits (Noroviruses), pig liver products (Hepatitis E Virus) and shellfish (Noroviruses, Hepatitis A Virus, Hepatitis E Virus, Rotavirus, etc.). Meanwhile, we are also specifically interested in rapid and/or molecular detection methods of other important foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and Vibrio.

Our world is changing rapidly, so does the associated food safety situation. Nowadays, people seek healthier and more sustainable foods. At the same time, we never stop our efforts on studying the emerging microbial threats. This is not only to identify what the risks are, but more importantly, to find out how to avoid and prevent the risks from entering the food chains from farm to fork.
One of the best examples is our study on the microbial safety of urban agriculture. In recent years, there is no doubt that the development of urban agriculture is of great importance for Singapore as well as the rest of the world due to food security requirement and sustainability reasons. Traditionally, it is well-known that leafy green vegetables harbour a large amount of micro-organisms and thus, are at risk for pathogen occurrence. Many people tend to believe urban agriculture is a solution for the safety issues. On the contrary, it is also possible that “when people mess up indoors, everything is magnified” (AGFUNDER News, 20 June 2018). Hence, we perform microbial safety evaluations of urban farming in Singapore, fundamental studies on molecular mechanisms of pathogen occurrence on fresh produce as well as the influencing factors such as modern agricultural technologies, practices and plant microbiome.

Ultimately, one of the key questions in Food Microbiology & Safety is still how to mitigate the microbial contamination in our food chains from farm to fork. We dedicate continuous efforts in searching for novel and natural antimicrobial strategies by incorporating multi-disciplinary expertise on material sciences, food enzymology, food chemistry, food fermentation and probiotics studies from both local and international collaborators.