Donald W. Schaffner, Ph.D., is Extension Specialist in Food Science and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. He is the current Chair of the Rutgers Department of Food Science. His research interests include handwashing, cross-contamination, and quantitative microbial risk assessment. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, the American Academy of Microbiology, the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), and the Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Schaffner was the president of IAFP from 2013–2014. He co-hosts the Food Safety Talk and Risky or Not podcasts.
Non-cultivable foodborne pathogens, such as enteric viruses and protozoan parasites like Cyclospora, present unique challenges in our food system due to significant limitations in sampling and detection. This article covers the methodological drawbacks of current methods related to interpretation of results and public health risk, while offering alternative food safety management principles to address the prevalence of these pathogens in food.
