Microbiological Control

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A recent literature review has provided an overview of the impacts of climate change on significant foodborne pathogens, parasites, and toxins; specifically, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Vibrio, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and marine biotoxins.

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Escherichia coli found on retail beef and pork meat samples in the UK is relatively low, according to surveillance conducted by the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Consumer Reports, Stop Foodborne Illness, and other food safety advocates have announced their support of a proposal by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) to declare Salmonella an adulterant in breaded, stuffed, not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) chicken products.

A project funded by the Center for Produce Safety has collected information about, validated, and evaluated the efficacy of the cleaning and sanitation practices for harvest equipment among blueberry harvesters and packers.

Implementing an effective Listeria environmental monitoring program enables knowledge of where Listeria can enter, harbor, and move through a facility, which is the first step toward keeping the pathogen on the run and not allowing it to impact production surfaces or finished product.

This article discusses the latest research elucidating the main reason why foodborne pathogens like Salmonella are more resistant to heat inactivation in low-moisture food (LMF) systems, including quantitative data relating thermal treatment temperature and water activity/relative humidity to the log-reduction rate of bacterial pathogens in different LMF. Case studies on pilot-scale thermal treatments for the control of Salmonella in LMF are also presented. 

The effects of climate change are projected to increase the economic burden of foodborne Vibrio infections in the U.S., warns the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA’s ERS).

Research on plant defense responses against pathogens, specifically E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium, holds insights to preventing foodborne illnesses and improving food safety practices.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently published a summary of a joint investigation of a multi-country foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Seftenberg that was possibly linked to cherry-like tomatoes.

In Canada, nearly 100 percent of food samples tested for the presence of microbial contaminants between April 2018 and March 2022 were deemed “satisfactory,” according to a recently published interim report from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).