Research Publications (Food Safety)

In 2016, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) established guidelines which modified the Buffered Peptone Water (BPW) rinsate material to include additional compounds that would better neutralize residual processing aids and allow for better recovery of sublethal injured Salmonella spp. cells.

Alternatives to combat the persistence of pathogens need to consider the microbiota established on industrial surfaces as they can influence the protection or replacement (i.e. reduction/inhibition) of pathogens.

Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium modulates the expression of factors essential for virulence, contributing to its survival against the surge of copper (Cu) in the Salmonella-containing vacuole. This bactericidal host innate immune component primarily targets the bacterial envelope, where most cuproproteins are localized.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella remains a leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, with food animal products serving as a key conduit for transmission. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses an additional public health concern warranting better understanding of its epidemiology. In this study, 958 retail meat samples collected from January to December 2018 in California were tested for Salmonella.

Small fruits such as strawberries have been increasingly implicated in outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes may contaminate strawberries leading to potential public health concern. The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a combined lactic acid bacteria (LAB) treatment of Lactobacillus plantarum and Pediococcus pentosaceus for controlling S.

Stray cat populations can represent a significant threat of the transmission of zoonotic diseases such as salmonellosis.

Increasing microbial safety and prolonging the shelf life of products is one of the major challenges in the food industry. Active food packaging made from nanofibrous materials enhanced with antimicrobial substances is considered a promising way.

Salmonella spp. continues to figure prominently in world epidemiological registries as one of the leading causes of bacterial foodborne disease. We characterised 43 Brazilian lineages of Salmonella Typhimurium (ST) strains, characterized drug resistance patterns, tested copper (II) complex as control options, and proposed effective antimicrobial measures.

Journal of Applied Microbiology, Accepted Article. In food animals, Salmonella can exist as multiserovar populations, and the goal of this study was to determine whether Salmonella-positive animal feed samples also consist of multiserovar populations. Fifty Salmonella positive samples, collected from ten countries, were cultured using three different media for Salmonella isolation: Universal pre-enrichment broth,

Salmonella spp. is one of the most important zoonotic pathogens with economic impact in public health worldwide. The relevance of Salmonella increases with the appearance of resistant strains. The aim of this study was to determine the level of antimicrobial resistance in 332 Salmonella isolates selected from 3 different poultry productive orientations in Eastern Spain during 3 years (2015 to 2017).

This work reports a sensitive and accurate multimode detection method to detect Salmonella typhimurium using inherent color, photothermal and catalytic properties of Prussian blue@gold nanoparticles (PB@Au). The inherent color of PB@Au can realize direct visual detection while the temperature increase (ΔT) of it can realize sensitive and quantitative photothermal detection. Moreover, catalytic coloration detection is applied to further amplify detection signal.

Diarrheal diseases caused by Salmonella pose a major threat to public health, and assessment of bacterial viability is critical in determining the safety of food and drinking water after disinfection. Viability PCR could overcome the limitations of traditional culture-dependent methods for a more accurate assessment of the viability of a microbial sample.

Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, and Shigella flexneri are typical foodborne pathogens in ground beef, which can cause severe infection even when present as a single cell. Flow cytometry (FCM) methods are widely applied in the rapid detection of pathogens in food products. In this study, we report an FCM-based method for detecting single cells of Salmonella, E.

Journal of Applied Microbiology, Accepted Article. This study evaluated the behaviour of the Salmonella enterica serotypes in osmotically-stressful BHI broth (0.940 ≤ aw ≤ 0.960), assessing inoculum from two stages of the bacterial life cycle (exponential and stationary) and two temperatures (25 and 35 °C). Four S.

Avocados are popular fruits; however, contamination of whole fresh avocados and avocado products with foodborne pathogens has raised concern about their safety. Recalls and import alerts of avocado products due to contamination with Listeria monocytogenes cause important economic losses. The behavior of Salmonella, L.

Berberis baluchistanica Ahrendt is a medicinal plant known to have potential for the treatment of various diseases. In the present study, the ethanolic extracts of the bark, leaves, and roots of B. baluchistanica plant were evaluated for in vitro antimicrobial, anti-leishmanial, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were determined by agar mix and agar well diffusion method.

by Kholoud A. Al-Shammery, Wael N. Hozzein Alternatives of conventional antibiotics have become an urgent need to control drug-resistant bacteria. Therefore, search for new antibacterial agents has become a trend in several microbiological and pharmaceutical scientific works. Insects, one of the most successful and evolved species on earth is known to be an effective natural source of several medically useful chemicals including antibacterial agents.

The use of bifidobacteria as probiotics has proven to be beneficial in gastroenteric infections. Furthermore, prebiotics such as inulin can enhance the survival and growth of these bacteria. Two trials were performed to evaluate the effects of the administration of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis CECT 7210 and oligofructose-enriched inulin against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium or enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) F4.

In this study, a recombinase aided amplification (RAA) assay with an improved propidium monoazide (PMAxx) treatment called PMAxx-RAA assay was developed to detect Salmonella in milk. The established method was performed at 39 °C and the detection time was less than 40 min. Compared with traditional detection methods, the PMAxx-RAA assay is fast, sensitive, and specific because of the gene invA that was selected to design unique primers and probes for detection.

In underdeveloped and developing countries, due to poverty, fermentation is one of the most widely used preservation methods. It not only allows extending the shelf life of food, but also brings other benefits, including inhibiting the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, improving the organoleptic properties and product digestibility, and can be a valuable source of functional microorganisms.

Outbreaks and recalls associated with foods containing spices suggest a need for risk assessment of Salmonella in spices. In this study, the survivability of Salmonella Enteritidis PT 30, Salmonella cocktail (S. Enteritidis PT 30, S. Tennessee K4643 and S. Agona 447967) and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 in chili, cinnamon and black pepper at water activities (aw) 0.3 and 0.5 were evaluated during one-year storage at 21 °C.

Salmonellosis involving chicken meat is one of the most frequent foodborne diseases registered worldwide. Many studies report the prevalence of Salmonella spp. on chicken meat; however, data are limited or variable.

Salmonella enterica is a leading human pathogen responsible for foodborne outbreaks worldwide. In the last decade, foods with low water activity (aw) and high-fat content have been involved in an increased occurrence of foodborne outbreaks. This research focuses on the foodstuff tahini, which is often linked to Salmonella infection outbreaks and recalls.

This study presents epidemiological data on the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and E. coli in bivalve molluscs marketed in Sardinia (Italy). E. coli enumeration and Salmonella spp. occurrence at batch level were used to verify the association between microbiological food safety criteria in place in the European Community.

Frozen reformulated (FR) breaded chicken products have previously been implicated in causing human salmonellosis. A multi-country Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis outbreak involving several strains with >400 reported human cases in the UK occurred in 2020. Initially S. Infantis was detected in one sample from a case home but S. Enteritidis was then also isolated using a S.