I recall sitting in the office one day in the fall of 2018 when I received a call from a reporter who informed me that there had been a further outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 linked to romaine lettuce. After an initial response of “oh, no,” the reporter asked why do we continue to have outbreaks linked to lettuce? 

Food companies and regulators have become increasingly vigilant for environmental pathogens in manufacturing facilities, with problems triggering swab-a-thons and even recalls.

Discover how using a charged aerosol detector can help olive oil producers identify adulterated product.

Trending environmental monitoring data can help with a root-cause analysis to uncover the origins of the positive finding and may inform the mitigation strategy.

The ability to rapidly detect the presence of viable pathogens along the production chain is essential for determining intervention and control strategies.

The number of reported incidents and recalls related to Listeria and L. monocytogenes has been increasing, and processors are making efforts to rid their facilities of harborage organisms and sites.

Successful detection of pathogens in foods involves sampling, preanalytical sample preparation and detection.

Campylobacter is also one of the foodborne pathogens that have frustrated public health agencies’ efforts to reduce its contribution to illnesses.  

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.

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?