5 Questions with Darryll Barkhouse, bioMérieux

1. What are the overall issues with spoilage in the food industry — how much does it cost the industry, and are there ways to prevent it?

Spoilage in food manufacturing undermines product quality and drives costly recalls and waste; a single spoilage event can cost a company millions of dollars a year. It also impacts operational efficiency, regulatory compliance and brand trust. Despite all of this, food spoilage microbiomes are still generally unknown.

At bioMérieux, we provide advanced technologies customized for individual production sites. For food safety and quality professionals, controlling spoilage is not just preventive — it’s strategic.

2. How does bioMérieux combine its expertise in sequencing and data analytics to offer services that go beyond just a test kit?

While most diagnostic innovation in microbiology has centered on improving pathogen detection, there has been less advancement in tools for identifying spoilage organisms. With how costly food waste has become, the industry needs more targeted solutions to mitigate spoilage.

When a customer is experiencing a spoilage event and doesn’t know what it is or where it’s coming from, we leverage metagenomics. Metagenomics analyzes the total microbiome of a food sample to identify what could be causing a product to spoil.

3. Can you talk about whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and how it’s used today in food safety and quality?

A food or beverage manufacturer would use WGS when they know what they are dealing with but don’t know how to control it and want to learn more. This can be done on ingredients, finished product and/or environmental samples to connect the dots throughout the factory. It shows the relation among organisms throughout a production site and how various strains could spread.

4. Can you describe how advanced data analytics can give food manufacturers more than just a data report?

Typically, food manufacturers aren’t just looking for what spoiled their product but how they can better improve their production. We work with our customers to take something that may appear as a report at face value and dig deeper to provide actionable insights to solve a problem. With advanced data analytics, you can find patterns or trends based on any metadata that affects manufacturing and spoilage.

5. How can a company take the findings from genomic services and translate it into something tangible in their lab or into a test kit?

When using advanced tools and new technologies, you almost always find something unexpected and reveal unknowns. Food, beverage and dietary supplement manufacturers can take that information and leverage the xPRO™ Program, part of bioMérieux’s Augmented Diagnostics offering, to develop custom testing solutions for routine use that minimize waste and maximize efficiency.