Spraying chicken carcasses with viruses may sound crazy 鈥� but if the viruses are harmless to humans but lethal to food poisoning bacteria, it could be a way of making food safer.
鈥淚n theory, these sprays could be used to wash any carcass in any abattoir,鈥� says Paul Barrow of the University of Nottingham, UK, who heads Supasalvac, the European consortium developing the technology. Supasalvac鈥檚 sprays contain a type of phage 鈥� a virus that only infects and kills certain strains of bacteria.
After testing a prototype spray on 300 chicken carcasses, Barrow鈥檚 team managed to reduce salmonella contamination by a thousandfold compared to the traditional treatment, washing with water alone.
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Phage cocktails could now be developed to tackle several food bugs at once, Barrow says.
