Research Publications (Food Safety)

Scharff, Robert L. et al. An understanding of the costs associated with foodborne illnesses is important to policy makers for prioritizing resources and assessing whether proposed interventions improve social welfare. At the national level, measured costs have been used by federal food safety regulatory agencies in regulatory impact analyses.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease , Vol. 0, No. 0.

Ricotta salata cheese is frequently contaminated on the surface with Listeria monocytogenesWater bath heat treatment in vacuum packed whole ricotta salata cheese wheels demonstrated to be effective in inactivating L. monocytogenes. However, the risk of cross-contamination in ricotta salata wedges is increased during cheese cutting. Therefore, the effectiveness of heat treatment in ricotta salata wedges has to be demonstrated conducting a new validation study.

Irrigation water has been implicated as a likely source of produce contamination by Salmonella enterica. Therefore, the distribution of S. enterica was surveyed monthly in irrigation ponds (n = 10) located within a prime agricultural region in southern Georgia and northern Florida.

We investigated the response of the hydrocarbon-degrading Mycobacterium vanbaalenii PYR-1 to crude oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill, using substrate depletion, genomic, and proteome analyses. M. vanbaalenii PYR-1 cultures were incubated with BP DWH crude oil, and proteomes and degradation of alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed at four time points over 30 days.

Listeria-infecting phages are readily isolated from Listeria-containing environments, yet little is known about the selective forces they exert on their host. Here, we identified that two virulent phages, LP-048 and LP-125, adsorb to the surface of Listeria monocytogenes strain 10403S through different mechanisms. We isolated and sequenced, using whole-genome sequencing, 69 spontaneous mutant strains of 10403S that were resistant to either one or both phages.

Pathogenic Escherichia coli or its associated virulence factors have been frequently detected in dairy cow manure, milk, and dairy farm environments. However, it is unclear what the long-term dynamics of E. coli virulence factors are and which farm compartments act as reservoirs. This study assessed the occurrence and dynamics of four E. coli virulence factors (eae, stx1, stx2, and the gamma allele of the tir gene [-tir]) on three U.S. dairy farms.

Cronobacter species are opportunistic pathogens commonly found in the environment. Among the seven Cronobacter species, Cronobacter sakazakii sequence type 4 (ST-4) is predominantly associated with recorded cases of infantile meningitis. This study reports on a 26-month powdered infant formula (PIF) surveillance program in four production facilities located in distinct geographic regions.

Campylobacter jejuni, the leading bacterial cause of human gastroenteritis in the United States, displays significant strain diversity due to horizontal gene transfer. Conjugation is an important horizontal gene transfer mechanism contributing to the evolution of bacterial pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance. It has been observed that heat shock could increase transformation efficiency in some bacteria. In this study, the effect of heat shock on C.

Clostridium botulinum type E toxin is responsible for extensive mortality of birds and fish in the Great Lakes. The C. botulinum bontE gene that produces the type E toxin was amplified with quantitative PCR from 150 sloughed algal samples (primarily Cladophora species) collected during summer 2012 from 10 Great Lakes beaches in five states; concurrently, 74 sediment and 37 water samples from four sites were also analyzed.

Enterobacteriaceae-associated blaCTX-M genes have become globally widespread within the past 30 years. Among isolates from Washington State cattle, Escherichia coli strains carrying blaCTX-M (CTX-M E. coli strains) were absent from a set of 2008 isolates but present in a set of isolates from 2011. On 30 Washington State dairy farms sampled in 2012, CTX-M E.

Formulations of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods with antimicrobial compounds constitute an important safety measure against foodborne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. While the efficacy of many commercially available antimicrobial compounds has been demonstrated in a variety of foods, the current understanding of the resistance mechanisms employed by L. monocytogenes to counteract these stresses is limited.

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of near-infrared radiation (NIR) heating combined with lactic acid (LA) sprays for inactivating Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis on almond and pine nut kernels and to elucidate the mechanisms of the lethal effect of the NIR-LA combined treatment. Also, the effect of the combination treatment on product quality was determined. Separately prepared S. Enteritidis phage type (PT) 30 and non-PT 30 S.

Publication date: Available online 4 June 2015

Author(s): S.U. Wetzels , E. Mann , B.U. Metzler-Zebeli , M. Wagner , F. Klevenhusen , Q. Zebeli , S. Schmitz-Esser

To evaluate the effective implantation of a specific protective culture of Penicillium nalgiovense, a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) using SYBR Green methodology was developed. Two specific primers were designed on the basis of the published partial sequences of the Internal Transcribe Spacer (ITS)1–5.8S-ITS2 region of various strains of P. nalgiovense. Using the developed method, a PCR product of 51 bp with a T

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Jackline Freitas Brilhante de São José , Maria Cristina Dantas Vanetti

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Minmin Li , Yanan Liu , Bei Fan , Jia Lu , Yan He , Zhiqiang Kong , Yulong Zhu , Qiu Jian , Fengzhong Wang

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Ferhat Yuksel , Kevser Karaman

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Ghada M. Khiralla , Bahig A. El-Deeb

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Anna C.V.C.S. Canto , Bruno R.C. Costa-Lima , Surendranath P. Suman , Maria Lucia G. Monteiro , Eliane T. Marsico , Carlos A. Conte-Junior , Robson M. Franco , Ana Paula A.A. Salim , Renata Torrezan , Teofilo J.P. Silva

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Rekha Priyadarshini Albert Dhayakaran , Suresh Neethirajan , Jun Xue , John Shi

Publication date: October 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 63, Issue 2
Author(s): Fernanda Rodrigues Leite Rolim , Karina Maria Olbrich dos Santos , Samuel Carneiro de Barcelos , Antônio Sílvio do Egito , Thais Santana Ribeiro , Maria Lúcia da Conceição , Marciane Magnani , Maria Elieidy Gomes de Oliveira , Rita de Cássia Ramos do Egypto Queiroga

Publication date: November 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 64, Issue 1
Author(s): Şeniz Karabıyıklı , Nilgün Öncül , Hande Cevahiroğlu