Category Archives: Microbial growth

USA – H-E-B Texas Pets Indoor Complete Dry Cat Food – Salmonella

Posted on December 19, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Petful

Photos of the front and back of the package of H-E-B Texas Pets Indoor Complete Dry Cat Food that is being recalled.

Maker: TFP Nutrition
Cause: Potential salmonella contamination
Announcement: FDA recall notice dated Dec. 16, 2022 (archived here)
What was recalled: 16 lb. bags of H-E-B Texas Pets Indoor Complete Dry Cat Food with Production Code “MFG 13 NOV 22”

TFP Nutrition has announced a voluntary recall of a batch of its H-E-B Texas Pets Indoor Complete Dry Cat Food due to potential contamination with salmonella. The affected product was manufactured on Nov. 13, 2022, at the company’s facility in Nacogdoches, Texas, and was distributed only in that state and sold exclusively in H-E-B retail stores.

Salmonella can affect animals that consume contaminated products and also poses a risk to humans who handle the products, particularly if they do not wash their hands thoroughly after contact. No cases of illness in either cats or humans have been reported in relation to the recalled cat food at this time.

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology Blog, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Pet Food, Pet Food Salmonella, Pet Food Testing, Salmonella

Research – Life and death of an ‘altruistic’ bacterium

Posted on December 18, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Science Daily

Biofilms, complex communities of bacteria, abound around us: on the surface of cheese where they give off flavors and aromas, in streams where they form the slimy substance on rocks, on our teeth where they form plaque.

Living in a biofilm provides numerous advantages to bacteria: things like resource sharing, shelter from predators, and increased resistance to toxic compounds such as antibiotics.

But having the option to leave the biofilm when environmental conditions deteriorate can be a plus for bacteria, too, allowing them to relocate to a more hospitable environment.

”For the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, the biofilm becomes a kind of prison in perpetuity: once cells are attached to a surface through a strong adhesive at one end of the cell, they cannot leave the biofilm,” said Yves Brun, a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Université de Montréal.

”However, when these attached cells divide, their unattached ‘daughter’ cells have a choice of joining the biofilm or swimming away.”

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Posted in Biofilm, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk

Research -Microbial safety and sanitary quality of strawberry primary production in Belgium: risk factors for Salmonella and Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) contamination.

Posted on December 18, 2022 by | Leave a comment

PDF

ABSTRACT

Strawberries are an important fruit in Belgium both in production and consumption, but little information is available about the presence of Salmonella and STEC in these berries, the risk factors in agricultural production and possible specific mitigation options.

In 2012, a survey was undertaken of three soil and three soilless cultivation systems in Belgium.

No Salmonella spp. was isolated. No STEC was detected in the strawberry samples (0 out of 72), but STEC was detected by qPCR in 11 out of 78 irrigation water and 2 out of 24 substrate samples.

Culture isolates were obtained for 2 out of 11 qPCR positive irrigation water samples and 2 out of 2 substrate samples. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed elevated generic E. coli numbers (odds ratio (OR) for 1 log increase being 4.6) as the most important risk factor for STEC, together with the berry picking season (elevated risk in summer).

Presence of generic E. coli in the irrigation water (≥ 1 cfu per 100 ml) was mainly influenced by the type of irrigation water (collected rainfall water stored in ponds was more often contaminated than ground water pumped from boreholes (OR = 5.8)) and the lack of prior treatment (untreated water versus water subjected to sand filtration prior to use (OR = 19.2)).

The follow-up study in 2013 at one of the producers indicated cattle as the most likely source of STEC contamination of the irrigation water.

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, STEC, STEC E.coli

Research – An outbreak of Cryptosporidium parvum linked to pasteurised milk from a vending machine in England: a descriptive study, March 2021

Posted on December 18, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Cambridge Org

We describe the investigations and management of a Cryptosporidium parvum outbreak of linked to consumption of pasteurised milk from a vending machine. Multiple locus variable number of tandem repeats analysis was newly used, confirming that C. parvum detected in human cases was indistinguishable from that in a calf on the farm. This strengthened the evidence for milk from an on-farm vending machine as the source of the outbreak because of post-pasteurisation contamination. Bacteriological indicators of post-pasteurisation contamination persisted after the initial hygiene improvement notice. We propose that on-farm milk vending machines may represent an emerging public health risk.

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Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, Cryptosporidiosis, Cryptosporidium, Decontamination Microbial, food bourne outbreak, food contamination, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, outbreak

Research -Quantitative microbiological risk assessment of traditional food of animal origin produced in short supply chains in Poland

Posted on December 18, 2022 by | Leave a comment

EFSA

Abstract

Polish raw-milk cheeses produced in short supply chains may pose a threat to consumer safety due to pathogen presence. Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium of great importance for the food safety of refrigerated RTE foods due to its ability to grow at refrigeration temperatures.

During the EU-FORA fellowship, a stochastic risk assessment was designed and executed to estimate the risk for consumers from L. monocytogenes in these products. The aim was to develop a probabilistic QMRA model that would incorporate the variability and uncertainty of the model’s inputs such as prevalence, initial concentration levels, product intrinsic factors, domestic storage temperature and consumer behaviour. The project involved data collection and analysis, growth model selection, mathematical modelling and Monte Carlo analysis in R programming language.

Microbiological and physicochemical testing were carried out throughout the year on two types of cheeses in combination with a domestic refrigerator temperature survey and accompanying consumption questionnaire. Collected data were fitted to probability distributions using R. The appropriate growth model for the pathogen was selected based on an inoculation study performed on one of the raw-milk cheeses and the chosen mathematical model was written into the R script developed for the QMRA. The dose–response model used the ingested dose calculated from the modelled concentration of L. monocytogenes at the time of consumption and the single serving size from the questionnaire to estimate the probability of illness. The final risk was expressed as probability of listeriosis for Polish consumers per serving of raw-milk cheese.

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Raw Milk, raw milk cheese, Raw Milk Cream, Research

Research – Microbiological Quality of Pig Carcasses in a Slaughterhouse under Risk-Based Inspection System

Posted on December 17, 2022 by | Leave a comment

MDPI

Abstract

Meat product inspection is one of the procedures adopted more than a century ago to guarantee food quality and safety for consumption. Due to technology and regulation advancement for farming and slaughtering pigs, a change in zoonotic profile attributed to pork has been identified.
 
Thus, a global movement began to establish inspection parameters based on epidemiological risk profiles, culminating in the publication of a new regulation in Brazil in 2018. This normative instruction establishes that slaughterhouses under federal inspection must implement risk-based inspection until 2028.
 
Changes in the inspection system can generate questions and objections on the part of customers and consumer markets. In order to assess microbiological contamination when adopting a risk-based inspection system, the occurrence of Salmonella spp. and the quantification of Enterobacteriaceae and mesophilic aerobic counts were compared in pig carcasses slaughtered under traditional and risk-based inspection systems.
 
A statistical significance reduction was identified regarding the quantification of Enterobacteriaceae (log −0.18 to −1.61 CFU/cm2) and mesophilic aerobic counts (log 4.60 to 3.49 CFU/cm2). The occurrence of Salmonella spp. did not show a significant difference (4% to 5.3%). The results allowed us to conclude that adopting risk-based inspection systems improves food safety through Enterobacteriaceae and mesophilic aerobic counts reduction.

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Safety, Food Safety Management, food safety training, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk

Research – Prevalence ofE. coliO157:H7 in water sources: an overview on associated diseases, outbreaks and detection methods

Posted on December 17, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Elsevier

Escherichia coliO157:H7 is a zoonotic pathogen with its ability to cause human illness ranging from diarrheal dis-ease to fatal hemolytic uremic syndrome.E. coliO157:H7 had been associated with waterborne outbreaksresulting in high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Therefore, it is important to investigate the prevalence ofE. coliO157:H7 in water sources especially used for drinking and to develop the diagnostic methods for itsearly detection. The review describes traditional cultural methods, immunological techniques, and polymerasechain reaction (PCR)–based methods for detection of this bacterium in water sources. The current PCR-basedtechniques such as real-time PCR are more specific and sensitive and require less detection time (b3 hours).These methods can be applied for regular water monitoring and proper management of water sources to preventwaterborne diseases due toE. coliO157:H7.

 

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, E.coli O157, E.coli O157:H7, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, STEC, STEC E.coli

Research – Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Oysters under Low Tidal Range Conditions: Is Seawater Analysis Useful for Risk Assessment?

Posted on December 17, 2022 by | Leave a comment

MDPI

Food Illness

Abstract

Human-pathogenic Vibrio bacteria are acquired by oysters through filtering seawater, however, the relationships between levels of these bacteria in measured in oysters and overlying waters are inconsistent across regions. The reasons for these discrepancies are unclear hindering our ability to assess if -or when- seawater samples can be used as a proxy for oysters to assess risk. We investigated whether concentrations of total and human pathogenic Vibrio vulnificus (vvhA and pilF genes) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (tlh, tdh and trh genes) measured in seawater reflect concentrations of these bacteria in oysters (Crassostrea virginica) cultured within the US lower Chesapeake Bay region. We measured Vibrio spp. concentrations using an MPN-qPCR approach and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). We found seawater concentrations of these bacteria to predictably respond to temperature and salinity over chlorophyll a, pheophytin or turbidity. We also inferred from the SEM results that Vibrio concentrations in seawater strongly predict their respective concentrations in oysters. We hypothesize that such seawater-oyster coupling can be observed in regions of low tidal range. Due to the ease of sampling and processing of seawater samples compared to oyster samples, we suggest that under low tidal range conditions, seawater samples can foster increased spatial and temporal coverage and complement data associated with oyster samples.

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Posted in Contaminated water, Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Vibrio, Water, water microbiology, Water Safety

Research – EFSA – FOODSAFETY4EU: paving the way for the food safety system of the future

Posted on December 17, 2022 by | Leave a comment

EFSA

Abstract

Food safety is a top priority for the European Commission, which policies aim at sustaining a high level of protection of human health and consumers’ interests, while ensuring an effective functioning of the internal EU market. Under the New Transparency Regulation (EU/2019/138), the 3-year EU-fundedFOODSAFETY4EUproject (FS4EU) kicked off in January 2021, represents a significant step for the European Union (EU) food safety system (FSS), towards more transparency, better engagement, and closer cooperation.

This Horizon 2020 Project, coordinated by CNR-ISPA (Italy), focuses on building a multi-stakeholder platform for the future EU FSS. The FOODSAFETY4EU Network currently consists of 23 consortium partners and around 50 stakeholders: Food Safety Authorities (FSA), consumer associations, academia, research centres and networks, food industries and sector associations, thinktanks, etc. Through a structured, digitally supported, participatory process, the platform hosts the co-design of future strategic research and innovation agenda (SRIA), as well as risk communication models tailored to the specificities of various target groups. Among the goals: providing scientific advice and technical support for EU food safety policies, by enabling actors to access, share and exchange scientific knowledge, resources, and data more efficiently, to better synchronise food safety research and policies, and to contribute to a more transparent communication through the FSS.

Overall, the FS4EU project underpins the EFSA missions in risk assessment, including risk communication, with the ambition to be a basis for a Knowledge Centre for Food Safety in Europe. Accordingly, the EU-FORA 2021–2022 fellow (based in CNR-ISPA under the Work Programme RECIPE: Risk AssEssment/Risk CommunIcation: understanding the context and addressing Priorities of the futurE–a learning-by-doing approach) committed to multiple Work Packages, actively participated to various activities, thus successfully contributing to the FS4EU project meeting its objectives by the end of 2023

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, EFSA, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, Research

Research – Emerging health threat and cost of Fusarium mycotoxins in European wheat

Posted on December 16, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Nature.com

CDC Fusarium1

Mycotoxins harm human and livestock health, while damaging economies. Here we reveal the changing threat of Fusarium head blight (FHB) mycotoxins in European wheat, using data from the European Food Safety Agency and agribusiness (BIOMIN, World Mycotoxin Survey) for ten years (2010–2019). We show persistent, high, single- and multi-mycotoxin contamination alongside changing temporal-geographical distributions, indicative of altering FHB disease pressure and pathogen populations, highlighting the potential synergistic negative health consequences and economic cost.

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Fusarium Toxin, microbial contamination, Microbial growth, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Microbiology Risk, mold, Mold Toxin, Mould Toxin, Mould/Mold, Mycotoxin