The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said that its food poisoning bacteria resource center has been designated as a bank specializing in managing the pathogen.

It is the first food poisoning bacteria bank. The nation has six specialized banks dealing with pathogen resources in the areas of viruses and zoonotic diseases.

With the latest designation, the new bank will preserve, manage, and distribute the food poisoning bacteria that are separated from food as a national resource.

The center was established in 2017 to improve the identification of food poisoning causes and has collected and stored about 12,000 strains. The primary role of the support center is to collect and characterize food poisoning bacteria, to make the bacteria as resources for the use, and to register and distribute national pathogen resources.

“The government will expand collection and preservation to make food poisoning strains a national resource through the operation of a specialized bank for the bacteria,” the ministry said. “Also, we will provide microbial resources to research institutes to help prevent food poisoning and promote research in the food safety sector,” the ministry said.