Research Publications (Food Safety)

This research aimed to assess the potential of active food packaging as an innovative approach to enhance the quality of fresh food products. Specifically, our focus was on developing chitosan edible films combined with rosemary nanoemulsion (Ch-RNE) and carvacrol nano-emulsion (Ch-CNE) as effective antibacterial food packaging solutions. The efficacy of these films against artificially inoculated L.

Biopreservation is an approach consisting of using microorganisms as protective cultures and/or their metabolites to optimize the microbiological quality and shelf life of food by ensuring safety or reducing food waste. Biopreservation strain selection pipelines mainly focus on inhibition strength to identify strains of interest. However, in addition to inhibition strength, inhibition activity must be able to be expressed despite significant variations in food matrix properties.

Fresh produce and animal-based products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes have been the main cause of listeriosis outbreaks for many years. The present investigation explored the potential of combination treatment of disinfectants with a bacteriophage cocktail to control L. monocytogenes contamination in the food industry.

Milk powder is a convenient, shelf-stable food ingredient used in a variety of food products. However, pathogenic bacteria can be present and survive during prolonged storage, leading to outbreaks of foodborne diseases and product recalls. Radio frequency (RF) heating is a processing technology suitable for bulk treatment of milk powder, aiming at microbial inactivation.

Listeria monocytogenes clonal complex 7 (CC7), belonging to lineage II, is the most common subtype among clinical listeriosis isolates in Norway, and is also commonly found in Norwegian food industry and outdoor environments. In the present study, the relative prevalence of CCs among clinical isolates of L. monocytogenes in European countries during 2010–2015 was determined.

Listeria (L.) monocytogenes is of global concern for food safety as the listeriosis-causing pathogen is widely distributed in the food processing environments, where it can survive for a long time. Frozen vegetables contaminated with L. monocytogenes were recently identified as the source of two large listeriosis outbreaks in the EU and US.

Listeriosis remains one of the most severe foodborne diseases regarding mortality rate. L. monocytogenes can grow under stressful conditions and contaminate various food categories. Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 modified on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs includes either qualitative or quantitative food safety criteria on L. monocytogenes and mentions EN ISO 11290-1 Standard as the reference detection method.

In order to meet consumers´ demands for more natural foods and to find new methods to control foodborne pathogens in them, research is currently being focused on alternative preservation approaches, such as biopreservation with lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Here, a collection of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates was characterized to identify potential biopreservative agents.

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.

Listeria monocytogenes is an opportunistic foodborne pathogen which has been implicated in many outbreaks of foodborne diseases. This study evaluated the effects of gastric acidity and gastric digestion time of adults, L. monocytogenes strain and food type on the survival of L. monocytogenes under simulated stomach conditions of adults in in vitro gastric models with dynamic pH changes occurring throughout the exposure.

High-pressure processing (HPP) has emerged in the food industry as an alternative to thermal juice preservation treatments, with its appeal being its assurance of safety for products with nutritional and sensory qualities similar to those of fresh food. However, HPP remains to be fully understood, particularly regarding hazards and process validation to mitigate microbiological risks.

Prenylated isoflavonoids can be extracted from plants of the Leguminosae/Fabaceae family and have shown remarkable antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive food-borne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes. Promising candidates from this class of compounds are glabridin and 6,8-diprenylgenistein. This research aimed to investigate the potential of glabridin and 6,8-diprenylgenistein as food preservatives against L. monocytogenes.

As a human foodborne pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes can cause severe human listeriosis and develop resistance to antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are produced from all kingdoms of life and regarded as promising alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Jelleine-I is an AMP identified from honeybees royal jelly. In this study, we explored the activity and action mechanism of Jelleine-I against L. monocytogenes.

The purpose of this study was to conduct challenge studies in raw pork by strictly following all aspects of the 2014 EURL technical guidance document for conducting shelf-life studies on Listeria monocytogenes. Growth potential was assessed on three batches of self-cut pork chops and one batch of in-house prepared pure minced pork without any additives in air and MAP (70 % O2/30% CO2) packaging.

Intrinsic characteristics of fresh produce, such as pH, water activity, acid content and nutrient availability are critical factors in determining the survival and growth of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm). In this study, sterile fresh produce juice was used to analyze Lm growth potential among 14 different commodities and to identify physicochemical characteristics in those juices that affect Lm growth.

The presence of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in the food processing environment (facilities and products) is a challenging problem in food safety management. Lm is one of the main causes of mortality in foodborne infections, and the trend is continuously increasing.

The present study evaluates the anti-biofilm activity of a coating applied with an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet system on AISI 316 stainless steel (SS) against multispecies biofilms containing L. monocytogenes (using background microbiota from three different meat industries) using culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. Also, the disinfection effectiveness and biofilm evolution after sanitization with two food industry biocides were assessed.

The adaptive response of bacterial cells to changing environmental conditions depends on the behavior of single cells within the population. Exposure of Listeria monocytogenes to sublethal acidic conditions in foods or in the gastrointestinal track of the host may induce injuries relevant to difficult physiological states within the dormancy continuum.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of foodborne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes is globally on the rise in the food industry.

In this work, the chemical composition of Thymus zygis subsp. gracilis collected from Ifrane, Morocco, along with the evaluation of the antibacterial, anti-biofilm of Listeria monocytogenes activities, larvicidal effect against L3 larvae

This study evaluated the survival of Listeria monocytogenes on fresh-cut melon and papaya treated with citral nanoemulsion (CN) during 7 days of storage at 4, 8, 12, and 16 °C.

Transcriptomic analysis was used to investigate the antibacterial mechanism of phenolic compounds from kefir fermented soy whey (FSP) against Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes. The kefir fermentation increased the concentration of several phenolic aglycones with proven antibacterial efficacy in the FSP. The time-kill curve showed that 2× MICs of the FSP killed >99.9 % of the strains within 2 h of exposure.

Listeria monocytogenes is a relevant foodborne pathogen causing invasive listeriosis in humans, a disease with high mortality rates. Its ubiquity and growth characteristics enable this pathogen to survive harsh food processing environments. The addition of bacteriocins, antimicrobial peptides ribosomally synthesized by certain bacteria, appears as a natural alternative to control this pathogen in food. However, the emergence of L.

Invasive listeriosis is a potentially fatal foodborne disease that according to this study may affect up to 32.9 % of the US population considered as increased risk and including people with underlying conditions and co-morbidities. Listeria monocytogenes has been scrutinized in research and surveillance programs worldwide in Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food commodities (RTE salads, deli meats, soft/semi-soft cheese, seafood) and frozen vegetables in the last 30 years with an estima

A total of 1797 imported food samples collected during 2018 to 2020 were investigated for Listeria monocytogenes. Antibiotic susceptibility tests and whole genome sequencing analysis were performed for the obtained isolates. The overall prevalence of L. monocytogenes was 5.62 %; the highest prevalence was observed for pork (13.65 %), followed by fish (6.25 %), sheep casing (6.06 %), chicken (3.61 %), and beef (2.06 %).