Viruses the New Condiment

Lip writes to tell us that a new bacteria killing virus has been deemed safe by the FDA as a food additive for ready-to-eat meats. These bacteriophages are designed to kill a common microbe (Listeria monocytogenes bacteria) to which hundreds of deaths every year have been attributed. From the article: "The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn't cause health problems anyway, the FDA said."

Comments

Opening doors.

[zyl0x]

Once this kind of technique prooves successful in real-world applications, maybe cancer-killing virus research will obtain more funding! As someone knowing people with so-far uncurable cancers, this makes me excited for the future of medicine.

To be overheard:

[cli_rules!]

Excuse me waiter, but - there's a virus in my spam.