The technique is being used to reduce Salmonella bacteria in meat products, according to reports from university news site NevadaToday.

Assistant Professor Amilton de Mello, from the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources at the University of Nevada, Reno, presented his research at the international American Meat Science Association's conference in Texas.

"We were able to reduce Salmonella by as much as 90 per cent in ground poultry, ground pork and ground beef," Prof de Mello reported. "We're excited to be able to show such good results, food safety is an important part of our work and Salmonella is one of the most prevalent bacteria in the nation's food supply."

Salmonella is one of the most common causes of food borne illnesses in the United States.

Prof de Mello's research treated meat products infected with four types of Salmonella by applying Myoviridae bacteriophages during mixing. Bacteriophages are commonly found in our environment. They are viruses that can only harm specific bacterial cells and are harmless to humans, animals and plants.

In the experiments, the Salmonella bacteria was inoculated on refrigerated meat and poultry trim, then the treatment was applied to the meat before grinding. The bacteriophages invaded the cells of the bacteria and destroyed them.

"On the final ground meat products, there was a 10-fold decrease of Salmonella," de Mello said. "The results are very encouraging and we're hoping this can be adopted by the meat industry to increase food safety."