The report examines spore-forming, botulinum toxin-producing clostridia that pose persistent challenges for food production, including C. botulinum, C. perfringens, and C. difficile. It reviews disease burden, outbreak risks, prevention strategies, detection methods, and significant epidemiological data gaps.
Real-world data from meat processors show Clostridium perfringens is rarely detected in fully cooked meat and poultry products and remains uncommon even when deviations from USDA-FSIS Appendix B parameters are reported, challenging assumptions underlying regulatory limits for growth during stabilization.
FAO has published a summary of an expert meeting on foodborne toxigenic clostridia (i.e., Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens, and Clostridioides difficile), characterizing their relevant food safety aspects, describing control measures, and identifying knowledge gaps and research needs.
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have discovered the ability of an amino acid to inhibit Clostridium perfringens spore formation in the human gut, a process that causes foodborne illness.
Ancera has unveiled the release of two new microbial detection tools designed to identify and enumerate Clostridium perfringens and total viable bacteria (TVB) in poultry.
A recent study has provided an overview of the levels and types of microbial contaminants present in 88 different plant-based ingredients used to make dairy alternatives, finding the microbial loads in different ingredients to be highly variable depending on difficult-to-control factors, as well as a high proportion of spore-forming microbes among the total microbial counts in many samples.
Based on the results of a recent Clostridium perfringens Market Basket Study, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has concluded that the guidance currently being used for the cooling of large-mass, non-intact ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products is adequate and does not merit revision.
