6. Data analysis

As biotechnology develops rapidly and the number of applications for molecular techniques increases, the development of bioinformatics tools for analyzing the data collected becomes more and more necessary. In fact, in the food safety sector, the use of point-of-care diagnostic equipment enables rapid data collection. These data are difficult to process using traditional approaches. Large-scale analyses of food contamination and the causes of food-borne epidemics will help to draw global conclusions, in turn providing a powerful impact on the directions and preventive actions to be taken. In addition, early detection of food-borne pathogens could be an important source of the raw data needed to formulate predictive models. Indeed, it is preferable to predict when and where certain categories of food are likely to be contaminated, rather than reacting after the contamination has manifested...