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<p>The long term goal of reducing the reducing the overall risk of foodborne illness.</p><p><ol><li>Determine the levels and distribution of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus spores in retail spices. </li><li> Characterize biofilm formation in food pathogens and surrogates.Aim 3. Develop rapid screening assays for bacterial contamination of produce.</li><li>Increase food safety knowledge of producers, conduct applied research relevant to food safety and design supports for adopting practices that will reduce the overall risk of foodborne illness and increase access to local and national wholesale markets. </li></ol></p>
The safety of the food supply is a continuing issue for agriculture, with an estimated 81 million instances of food borne illnesses in the USA annually, with an estimated cost of $152 billion dollars per year to the US economy. The Center for Disease Control and prevention estimates that 46% of these illnesses were due to produce - thus food safety is very much an agricultural issue. This multi-researcher project will focus on four critical aspects of food safety: understanding the scope of food safety problems, characterizing the scientific basis of pathogenic organisms' survival, development of methodology for detection, and translating knowledge through food safety extension research and activates. Together these activities will contribute to the long term goal of reducing the reducing the overall risk of foodborne illness.