In the U.S., between 1983 and 2002, the six most commonly occurring serotypes of non-O157 Escherichia coli were O26, O111, O103, O121, O45 and O145, which have become foodborne pathogens of interest.
An analytical testing protocol is fundamental to any food product acceptance testing program, including those for examining the microbiological safety of ready-to-eat salad.
During last decade, a few novel intervention technologies were successfully developed, approved by regulatory agencies and applied as inactivation steps to enhance food safety.
At present, there is no oversight of food laboratories. We do not know the total number of food laboratories, whether the people performing the testing were trained adequately or what type of quality control processes, if any, are employed. Is proficiency testing the answer?