Research Publications (Food Safety)

Abstract This report by the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control presents the results of the zoonoses monitoring and surveillance activities carried out in 2022 in 27 Member States (MSs), the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) and 11 non‐MSs. Key statistics on zoonoses and zoonotic agents in humans, food, animals and feed are provided and interpreted historically.

Human norovirus (HNoVs) and Salmonella are both very important foodborne pathogens with mixed infection of HNoV and Salmonella reported clinically.

Vegetables, especially those eaten raw, have been implicated in several foodborne disease outbreaks. Since multiple vegetable matrices and hazards are involved, risk managers have to prioritize those with the greatest impact on public health to design control strategies. In this study, a scientific-based risk ranking of foodborne pathogens transmitted by leafy green vegetables in Argentina was performed.

Root vegetables, which are in close contact with soil, are particularly vulnerable to soil contamination or decay as they can be contaminated from multiple sources, including primary production and processing. This study investigated effective washing conditions to reduce the microbial contamination of potatoes by using soaking and shaking in the washing process.

In recent years, rapid detection methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) have been continuously developed to improve the detection of food-borne pathogens in food samples. The recent developments of PCR and qPCR in the detection and identification of these food-borne pathogens are described and elaborated throughout this review.

Background The National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) captures data on foodborne, waterborne, and enteric illness outbreaks in the United States. This study describes enteric illness outbreaks reported during 11 years of surveillance. Methods We extracted finalized reports from NORS for outbreaks occurring during 2009–2019.

Environmental monitoring (EM) programs are designed to detect the presence of pathogens in food manufacturing environments with the goal of preventing microbial contamination of food. Nevertheless, limited knowledge exists regarding the influence of environmental conditions on microbial recovery during EM. This study utilizes a commercially-available polyurethane foam (PUF) EM tool to determine the influence of environmental factors on the recovery of foodborne pathogens.

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Accepted Article. Background The purpose of the present study was to examine the inactivation of Salmonella enterica (50 μL; 109 CFU/g), Listeria monocytogenes (50 μL; 109 CFU/g), and murine norovirus (MNV-1; 50 μL; 107 TCID50/mL) on whole and fresh-cut strawberries after 2-min disinfection treatments (water (H2O), chlorine 200 mg/L (NaClO), water-assisted UV-C (WUV), and th

A previously conducted national survey of restaurant inspection programs associated the practice of disclosing inspection results to consumers at the restaurant point-of-service (POS) with fewer foodborne outbreaks. We used data from the national Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) to assess the reproducibility of the survey results.

Background A wide variety of pathogens can cause disease in humans via consumption of contaminated food.

Foodborne diseases affect an estimated 600 million people worldwide annually, with the majority of these illnesses caused by Norovirus, Vibrio, Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli. To elicit infections in humans, bacterial pathogens express a combination of virulence factors and toxins.

Fresh vegetables and shellfish are prone to microbial contamination through irrigation or breeding with sewage-polluted waters, as well as by infected food handlers. In this work, we studied the presence of human and bovine polyomaviruses and human norovirus in fresh lettuces, strawberries and oysters produced in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. In oysters, we also investigated F-specific RNA bacteriophages, indicator Escherichia coli (E.

Background Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) burden, etiology, and severity in adults is not well characterized. We implemented a multisite AGE surveillance platform in 4 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (Atlanta, Georgia; Bronx, New York; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles, California), collectively serving >320 000 patients annually.

Author(s): Omar Hernández Hernández, Ana L. Gutiérrez-Escolano, Cleo Cancio-Lonches, Montserrat H. Iturriaga, Juan Ramiro Pacheco-Aguilar, Rocío Morales-Rayas, Sofía M. Arvizu-Medrano A multiplex PCR method was developed for the simultaneous detection of murine norovirus (MNV-1) as a surrogate for human norovirus (HuNoV) GI and GII, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in fresh produce.

The study tested the hypothesis that harboring high levels of histo-blood group antigen-expressing Enerobactero cloacae is a risk factor for norovirus diarrhea. The fecal E. cloacae abundance in diarrheic norovirus positive (DNP), non-diarrheic norovirus negative (NDNN), diarrhea norovirus negative (DNN), and non-diarrhea norovirus positive (NDNP) infants was determined by qPCR, and the risk of norovirus diarrhea was assessed by logistical regression.

Introduction. The identification of enteropathogens is critical for the clinical management of patients with suspected gastrointestinal infection. The FLOW multiplex PCR system (FMPS) is a semi-automated platform (FLOW System, Roche) for multiplex real-time PCR analysis.

Fresh vegetables and shellfish are prone to microbial contamination through irrigation or breeding with sewage-polluted waters, as well as by infected food handlers. In this work, we studied the presence of human and bovine polyomaviruses and human norovirus in fresh lettuces, strawberries and oysters produced in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. In oysters, we also investigated F-specific RNA bacteriophages, indicator Escherichia coli (E.

by Nikola Ondrikova, Helen E. Clough, Amy Douglas, Miren Iturriza-Gomara, Lesley Larkin, Roberto Vivancos, John P. Harris, Nigel A. Cunliffe

Background

Background Diarrheal pathogens have been associated with linear growth deficits. The effect of diarrheal pathogens on growth is likely due to inflammation, which also adversely affects neurodevelopment. We hypothesized that diarrheagenic pathogens would be negatively associated with both growth and neurodevelopment.

A novel F-specific RNA bacteriophage (FRNAPH) YM1, affiliating to genogroup I (GI) of Levivirus, is isolated for the first time from human stool samples using double-layer agar plates with the Escherichia coli ATCC700891 as the host. The complete genomic sequence of YM1 is 3551 nt in length, obtained through next-generation sequencing, and contains four genes encoding for maturation protein, coat protein, lysis protein, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp).

Retail foodservice establishments (FSE) frequently utilize washes with sanitizing agents during fresh produce preparation. This study evaluated the efficacy of ozonated water on the inactivation of viruses, bacteria, and viruses in association with bacteria on produce surfaces.

Human norovirus is regarded as the leading cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis with GII.4 being the predominant genotype during the past decades. In the winter of 2014/2015, the GII.17 Kawasaki 2014 emerged as the predominant genotype, surpassing GII.4 in several East Asian countries. Hence, the influence of host immunity response on the continuous evolution of different GII.17 variants needs to be studied in depth.

Author(s): Trond Møretrø, Christophe Nguyen-The, Pierrine Didier, Isabelle Maître, Tekla Izsó, Gyula Kasza, Silje E. Skuland, Maria João Cardoso, Vania B. Ferreira, Paula Teixeira, Daniela Borda, Loredana Dumitrascu, Corina Neagu, Anca Ioana Nicolau, Eduard Anfruns-Estrada, Mike Foden, Phil Voysey, Solveig Langsrud

The detection of viruses and bacteria which can pose a threat either to shellfish health or shellfish consumers remains difficult. The current detection methods rely on point sampling of water, a method that gives a snapshot of the microorganisms present at the time of sampling. In order to obtain better representativeness of the presence of these microorganisms over time, we have developed passive sampling using the adsorption capacities of polymer membranes.

The fecal indicator organism (FIO) Escherichia coli is frequently used as a general indicator of sewage contamination and for evaluating the success of shellfish cleaning (depuration) processes. To evaluate the robustness of this approach, the accumulation, retention, and depuration of non-pathogenic E. coli, pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 and norovirus GII (NoV GII) RNA were evaluated using a combination of culture-based (E. coli) and molecular methods (E.