Articles Tagged with ''whole genome sequencing''

Assuring food safety in this "New Era of Smarter Food Safety" and with the increasing use of whole genome sequencing provides many new challenges for food safety professionals. While these challenges are many and multi-faceted, it is helpful to look back to the "old" era of food safety, to some of the foundational concepts in the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that are still in force today. In this article, the authors focus first on one of many important legal terms that is extremely important and often misunderstood: adulteration.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA’s ARS) recently published a Research Brief that highlights two recent food safety studies related to Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has published its annual report on FSIS Foodborne Illness Outbreak Investigations for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY 2021) and key after-action reviews.

The European Food Safety Commission (EFSA) has published guidelines for reporting whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to its One Health WGS System, which will support outbreak investigations and other EFSA activities.

A recent study suggests that the cold foods supply chain is the optimal environment for the COVID-19 virus to spread over long distances. The study explores various prevention and testing methods that could be used to mitigate the pathogen’s spread through cold-chain foods.

A study that observed non-typhoidal Salmonella in Vietnamese retail pork found high levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), multi-drug resistance, and resistance to the antibiotic colistin.

A European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) fellowship explores whole genome sequencing (WGS) standardization in outbreak investigations, as well as the use of WGS in monitoring pathogen virulence and antimicrobial resistance.

During the Thursday morning Town Hall at the 2022 Food Safety Summit, top food safety regulators from FDA, USDA, CDC, and AFDO discussed initiatives and advances in food traceability, food safety policy, recalls, pathogen monitoring, food safety culture, and a number of other timely areas. 

A dataset on Listeria monocytogenes has been compiled from over 1,400 genomes collected across 19 European nations to better understand the pathogen’s genetic makeup and adaptation in different ecological niches.

A recent study reveals that a significant number of listeriosis cases in Germany were caused by the consumption of smoked or graved salmon that was contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes.