Category Archives: Research

Research – Vital Surveillances: Characteristics of Settings and Etiologic Agents of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks — China, 2020

Posted on November 7, 2021 by | Leave a comment

China CDC

  • Abstract

    IntroductionFoodborne diseases are a growing public health problem and have caused a large burden of disease in China. This study analyzed epidemiological characteristics of foodborne diseases in China in 2020 to provide a scientific basis for prevention and control measures.

    MethodsData were collected from 30 of 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) in the mainland of China, excluding Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region, via the National Foodborne Disease Outbreaks Surveillance System. The number and proportion of outbreaks, illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths by setting, pathogen-food category pairs and etiology were calculated.

    ResultsIn 2020, 7,073 foodborne disease outbreaks were reported, resulting in 37,454 illnesses and 143 deaths. Among the identified pathogens, microbial pathogens were the most common confirmed etiology, accounting for 41.7% of illnesses. Poisonous mushrooms caused the largest proportion of outbreaks (58.0%) and deaths (57.6%). For venues where foodborne disease outbreaks occur, household had the highest number of outbreaks (4,140) and deaths (128), and catering service locations caused the largest proportion of illnesses (59.9%). Outbreaks occurring between June and September accounted for 62.8% of total outbreaks.

    ConclusionsFoodborne disease outbreaks mainly occurred in households. Microbial pathogens remained the top cause of outbreak-associated illnesses. Poisonous mushrooms were ranked the top cause of deaths in private homes in China. The supervision and management of food safety and health education should be strengthened to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases. Publicity should be increased to reduce the incidence of mushroom poisonings in families, and supervision and management of food should be strengthened to reduce microbial contamination.

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Posted in food bourne outbreak, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, foodborne disease, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research, Uncategorized

Research – How foodborne diseases protect the gut’s nervous system

Posted on November 6, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Science Daily

A simple stomach bug could do a lot of damage. There are 100 million neurons scattered along the gastrointestinal tract — directly in the line of fire — that can be stamped out by gut infections, potentially leading to long-term GI disease.

But there may be an upside to enteric infection. A new study finds that mice infected with bacteria or parasites develop a unique form of tolerance quite unlike the textbook immune response. The research, published in Cell, describes how gut macrophages respond to prior insult by shielding enteric neurons, preventing them from dying off when future pathogens strike. These findings may ultimately have clinical implications for conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, which have been linked to the runaway death of intestinal neurons.

“We’re describing a sort of innate memory that persists after the primary infection is gone,” says Rockefeller’s Daniel Mucida. “This tolerance does not exist to kill future pathogens, but to deal with the damage that infection causes — preserving the number of neurons in the intestine.”

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, gastroenteritis, GI, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research

Research – Biofilms are a concern across the entire food supply chain

Posted on November 6, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

kswfoodworld biofilm

Biofilm, which is a cluster of pathogens encased in a protective matrix, is a common enemy across diverse food manufacturing industries.

From dairy, produce, meat, poultry, ready-to-eat deli foods and other products, biofilm is a concern at the farm level and at processing and manufacturing plants.

The protective layers generated by pathogens that create the biofilm, known as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), resist sanitation efforts and are adept at spreading in moist environments, through a process known as “seeding dispersal.” According to Sterilex Industries, which offers products to treat biofilms and the pathogens they harbor, seeding dispersal is similar to a dandelion releasing seeds to encourage species growth.

Although forming biofilm is a natural process that pathogens — including those commonly leading to foodborne illness outbreaks, such as Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella — use to survive, industry food safety plans and government regulations don’t necessarily focus on biofilm and how to eradicate it.

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Posted in Biofilm, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Listeria, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research, Salmonella, STEC, STEC E.coli

Research – The Effective Use of HACCP for the Control of Environmental Microbial Contamination by the use of Operational Prerequisite Programs – Russell Berg – November 2021

Posted on November 5, 2021 by | Leave a comment

LinkedIn

When the concept of prerequisites was first formulated in the late 1980s there was no distinction in importance between them. In many ways this goes against the principle of HACCP, in which resources should be allocated according to risk. Hence greater control should be imposed at Critical Control Points rather than Control Points. In the early days of HACCP (but unfortunately still is often the case) this principle has been applied to the direct product pathway, but barely to the processing environment. In this sense in the U.K. all fourteen allergens are treated the same way, as far as legislation, but many food manufacturers do not treat all the allergens the same as far as environmental control. Very food factories exclude staff from bringing any of the listed allergens on to site, but many exclude peanuts and tree nuts from site. Hence the risk from all the allergens is not considered the same, so as far as allergen control. In these circumstances peanuts and tree nuts could be considered and controlled by Operational Prerequisite Programs (OPRP), whilst other allergens would be controlled by Prerequisite Programs (PRP), to reflect the risk level.

The concept of OPRPs was first introduced in ISO 22000:2005 to address this problem with environmental controls but created some confusion in that they would bean intermediate control between Control Points and Critical Control Points along the direct product pathway. By this definition the main difference between CCPs and OPRPs is that CCPs are critical for safe food whilst OPRPs are essential for food safety. A better term for OPRP would be ECP (Essential Control Point).When this standard was updated in ISO 22000:2018 more details were included in the definition about controlling OPRPs (either by measurement or observation) but the use of OPRPs was not clarified to avoid the confusion.

However Ismail in his LinkedIn article of 15thNovember 2019(Ref. 1)gave a good resolution to the problem by splitting food safety hazards into two categories. Type A hazards are introduced with the raw materials and are best controlled by Critical Control Points and (Process) Control Points along the direct product pathway. Examples of these are Campylobacter in poultry or E. coli in raw meat. Type B hazards are introduced from the processing environment, usually due to poor or inadequate GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice). These hazards are controlled by (Environmental) Control Measures(as part of PRPs) and the ones essential to food safety should be controlled by OPRPs Examples of these hazards are Staphylococci aureus from food handler’s hands and pathogens(microbes with the potential to cause harm)spread by flies. Unlike CCPs, which deal with contamination, multiplication and survival of microbial hazards, environmental OPRPs are only concerned with contamination of food with microbial hazards.

For the rest of this article we will be concerned with Type B microbial hazards.

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research

Research – Israeli antimicrobial coating eliminates listeria 100% in factory pilot

Posted on November 5, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Jpost

Israeli company Bio-Fence has created an antimicrobial coating that eliminated all traces of a deadly foodborne illness in a recent test.

An Israeli antimicrobial coating has managed to eliminate all traces of a deadly foodborne illness in a recent test conducted in a hot dog peeling room at a major sausage manufacturing facility in Israel.
The company, Bio-Fence, developed the coating, which was applied to the floor and lower part of the walls of the room which, despite repeated and strict disinfectant routines, had experienced high levels of listeria, particularly on the production floor.
Listeria is one of the deadliest foodborne illnesses. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, even if treated aggressively with antibiotics, as many as 30% of infected people die and more than 90% of people are hospitalized – often in intensive care units.
In the three weeks before the proof-of-concept (POC) pilot in which Bio-Fence’s coating was applied, listeria was detected in 21 out of 23 (91%) daily floor samples. After application, the bacteria were completely undetectable on the floor surface during day-to-day production.

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Technology, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research, Technology

Research – Transmission of Escherichia coli from Manure to Root Zones of Field-Grown Lettuce and Leek Plants

Posted on November 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

MDPI

Pathogenic Escherichia coli strains are responsible for food-borne disease outbreaks upon consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits. The aim of this study was to establish the transmission route of E. coli strain 0611, as proxy for human pathogenic E. coli, via manure, soil and plant root zones to the above-soil plant compartments. The ecological behavior of the introduced strain was established by making use of a combination of cultivation-based and molecular targeted and untargeted approaches. Strain 0611 CFUs and specific molecular targets were detected in the root zones of lettuce and leek plants, even up to 272 days after planting in the case of leek plants. However, no strain 0611 colonies were detected in leek leaves, and only in one occasion a single colony was found in lettuce leaves. Therefore, it was concluded that transmission of E. coli via manure is not the principal contamination route to the edible parts of both plant species grown under field conditions in this study. Strain 0611 was shown to accumulate in root zones of both species and metagenomic reads of this strain were retrieved from the lettuce rhizosphere soil metagenome library at a level of Log 4.11 CFU per g dry soil. View Full-Text

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

Research – The Bactericidal Efficacy and the Mechanism of Action of Slightly Acidic Electrolyzed Water on Listeria monocytogenes’ Survival

Posted on November 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

MDPI

In the present work, the bactericidal efficacy and mechanism of slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) on L. monocytogenes were evaluated. The results showed that the strains of L. monocytogenes were killed completely within 30 s by SAEW whose available chlorine concentration (ACC) was higher than 12 mg/L, and it was confirmed that ACC is the main factor affecting the disinfection efficacy of SAEW. Moreover, our results demonstrated that SAEW could destroy the cell membrane of L. monocytogenes, which was observed by SEM and FT-IR, thus resulting in the leakage of intracellular substances including electrolyte, protein and nucleic acid, and DNA damage. On the other hand, the results found that SAEW could disrupt the intracellular ROS balance of L. monocytogenes by inhibiting the antioxidant enzyme activity, thus promoting the death of L. monocytogenes. In conclusion, the bactericidal mechanism of SAEW on L. monocytogenes was explained from two aspects including the damage of the cell membrane and the breaking of ROS balance. View Full-Text

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Posted in Decontamination Microbial, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Technology, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research, Technology

EU – Eleventh external quality assessment scheme for Salmonella typing

Posted on November 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

ECDC

Executive summary

Salmonellosis was the second-most commonly reported zoonotic disease in the European Union (EU) in 2019, with a notification rate of 20.0 cases per 100 000 population. The total number of reported cases was 90 105 [3]. Since 2007, ECDC has been responsible for EU-wide surveillance of salmonellosis, including facilitating the detection and investigation of food-borne outbreaks. Surveillance data, including certain basic typing parameters, are reported by Member States to the European Surveillance System (TESSy). Since 2012, the EQA scheme has covered molecular typing methods used for EU-wide surveillance.

The effective molecular typing-enhanced surveillance relies on the capacity of NPHRLs in the FWD-Net to produce comparable typing results. ECDC has opened the possibility for Member States to submit WGS data for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes to TESSy to be used for EU-wide surveillance and cross-sector comparison. The previous EQA schemes from EQA-4 to EQA-8 included assessment of the PFGE typing methods for all Salmonella serovars and MLVA for S. Typhimurium (STm). Since EQA-8, the participants could participate in MLVA for S. Enteritidis (SE). From EQA-9, the separate PFGE part was excluded. Since then, PFGE has only been included into the cluster analyses part where the ability of identifying a cluster based on molecular typing by either using PFGE, MLVA and/or whole genome sequencing (WGS) derived data was assessed.

The objectives of the EQA-11 scheme were to assess the quality of data and comparability of molecular typing analysis results produced by NPHRLs in FWD-Net. Test isolates for the EQA were selected to cover isolates currently relevant for public health in Europe. Three sets of 10 isolates were selected, including S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis isolates for the respective MLVA methods and the cluster analysis included ten S. Enteritidis ST11 isolates.

Twenty-one laboratories signed up and 20 completed the exercise. This is a decrease from EQA-8 (N=23) by 13%. It is unknown if the removal of the PFGE part (gel quality and analysis) was the cause of this. Most laboratories (N=19) participated in the molecular typing-based cluster analysis. Out of the 20 laboratories participating in EQA-11, 14 (70%) performed molecular typing-based cluster analysis using WGS-derived data, which is one less compared to EQA-10.

In total, eight laboratories participated in the S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis MLVA analysis, which is slightly fewer compared with EQA-8, when 10 and eight laboratories participated, respectively. The performance level was high for both analyses (95% and 98% respectively) and within the range of the previous years.

The aim of the cluster analysis part of the EQA was to assess the NPHRL’s ability to identify a cluster of genetically closely related isolates i.e. correctly categorise cluster test isolates regardless of the method used. The cluster of closely related S. Enteritidis ST11 isolates could be investigated by PFGE, MLVA and WGS-derived data. The expected cluster was based on a predefined categorisation by the organiser and contained five isolates based on WGS-derived data.

The number of laboratories performing WGS has stabilised as no new laboratories performed WGS this year and over time, the use of PFGE and MLVA has become less frequent. Fewer laboratories performed cluster analysis with more than one method and only one laboratory performed cluster analysis using all three methods in EQA-11.

Six laboratories used PFGE for cluster analysis and for three participants; PFGE was the only cluster analysis method. None of the six laboratories were able to identify the correct cluster using PFGE. Four laboratories used MLVA for cluster analysis and two laboratories only used MLVA for the cluster analysis. All ten test isolates had the same MLVA profile and therefore it was not possible for the participants to identify the correct cluster of closely related isolates using this less discriminatory method.

The performance among the 14 participants using WGS derived data was very high, as 13 (93%) correctly identified the cluster of closely related isolates and the use of allele-based analysing method (mainly core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST)/Enterobase scheme) was dominant.

An assessment of six EQA provided genomes was an additional part to the molecular typing-based cluster analysis. In an urgent outbreak situation, the sequence data available is not always of high quality, therefore, this EQA-part was designed to mimic this situation. The participants were asked to assess six genomes, which were modified by the EQA provider in order to give a realistic view of different quality issues. All participants (except one for one of the genomes) successfully identified the three genomes of high quality as either a cluster isolate (one genome) or a non-cluster isolate (two genomes). Two poor quality genomes with contamination of a different Salmonella ST34 (20%) were identified by all the participants. Ten of 14 participants identified the genome with 10% Citrobacter -contamination.

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research, Salmonella

Hong Kong – Fresh Water Hairy Crabs and Food Safety

Posted on November 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

CFS

Autumn is the best season for savouring freshwater hairy crabs, when they are at their best with very tasty, tender meat and delectable roe, bringing great enjoyment to crab lovers. In many groceries, supermarkets and restaurants, this seasonal food is showcased prominently to entice customers. Some members of the public find this delicacy irresistable. However, they should not overindulge themselves with this cholesterol-rich cuisine. Hairy crabs may harbour parasites and pathogens. They should be cooked thoroughly before consumption. As regards concerns on chemicals (e.g. veterinary drug residues, synthetic hormones and heavy metals) in hairy crabs, the Centre for Food Safety has been testing hairy crab samples taken at import and retail levels, and the results of which have all been satisfactory in recent years.

The public are advised to note the following food safety tips when buying, preparing or consuming hairy crabs:

Purchase

  • Buy hairy crabs from reliable shops or restaurants
  • Buy live crabs with intact, shiny shells without a foul smell
  • Do not buy dead hairy crabs as they are highly perishable

Preparation

  • Prepare and consume hairy crabs soon after purchase
  • If not for immediate consumption, wrap and place the crabs properly in a clean utensil and store in the refrigerator to maintain their quality and avoid cross-contamination
  • Brush and wash the shells and claws with water before cooking
  • Cook thoroughly before consumption

Consumption

  • Maintain a balanced diet and avoid eating too many hairy crabs, particularly the cholesterol-rich roe
  • Avoid eating raw crabs. Condiments such as salt, vinegar, wine and wasabi cannot kill bacteria or parasites that may be present
  • Wash hands with soap and water before consumption
  • Remove the internal organs before eating

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Posted in Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, microbial contamination, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Microbiology, Microbiology Investigations, Research

USA Research – Worst Foodborne Illness Outbreaks in Recent U.S. History

Posted on November 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Healthline

Foodborne illness, or food poisoning, affects about one in six Trusted Source Americans every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source estimates that of these cases, there are 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually.

You can get food poisoning when your food carries dangerous germs or toxins. Salmonella is the most common known cause of hospitalization due to food poisoning in the United States with over 19,000 cases per year Trusted Source.

This pathogen, along with others, can get into your food through:

  • improper food handling
  • unsafe practices on farms
  • contamination during manufacturing or distributing
  • contamination in stores

Read about the biggest foodborne outbreaks in recent U.S. history, and learn how to recognize food poisoning and protect yourself from it.

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