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A light-based, food sanitization technique successfully eliminated multiple harmful pathogens in a new study carried out by Pennsylvania State University researchers. Pulsed light is an emerging technology, which could serve as an alternative to current antimicrobial interventions in the food industry but could also be applied more broadly in other antimicrobial applications, says Cassar. [Extracted from the article]

Since many of these environmental bacteria are not harmful to humans or animals, if we can identify the specific species that inhibit pathogen biofilm formation, we can use them as probiotics (preventive measures) against disease-causing bacteria." E. coli O157:H7 (a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli) and S. enterica are two disease-causing bacteria (pathogens) associated with foodborne illnesses in the United States. Disease-causing bacteria like Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica could survive sanitization in processing facilities. [Extracted from the article]

Your food can kill you. Every year, about 3,000 Americans die from salmonella and other foodborne illnesses, and an estimated 48 million are sickened. Recent scandals over abysmal sanitary conditions in food processing plants that led to large disease outbreaks in eggs and peanuts have pushed Congress to overhaul the food-safety system for all foods except meat and poultry. A last-minute hitch, however, has left the fate of that bipartisan legislation uncertain, despite support from an unusual alliance of industry and consumer advocates. If it wins enactment, advocates may push for revamping meat regulation. Far more disagreement exists on the controversial genetic frontier of food safety. Scientists can now genetically modify fruits and vegetables as well as livestock and other food animals. But debate over the safety of genetic modification among lawmakers, food safety officials, consumer groups and the food industry shows no sign of quieting down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foodborne illness is a serious public health problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that each year in the United States, 76 million people get sick, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-related illnesses. There are many who maintain that these estimates understate the problem because many people do not seek medical help for foodborne illness and so those episodes of illness are not included in official counts. Most consumers look to the government to regulate and protect the food supply, and industry is interested in producing foods that are safe at a reasonable price. Consequently, Congress has an interest in oversight and legislation in this area. Several federal agencies, along with cooperating agencies in the states, are responsible for assuring the safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling of all foods. The responsibilities under the current federal system are divided among two departments and one independent agency. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates meat, poultry, and certain egg products while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), sets and enforces standards for safety of all other domestic and imported foods. The FDA is also responsible for ensuring that all animal drugs and feeds are safe, labeled properly, and produce no human health hazard when used in food-producing animals. The CDC, also part of DHHS, tracks foodborne illness outbreaks. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets legal limits (tolerances) on the amounts of pesticide residues allowed in or on food. Production of food is often a multistage process involving many different vendors and producers. Congress maintains close oversight over federal food safety activities, which consist of inspecting, testing, research, and monitoring the food supply. In response to limited federal funding, FDA and USDA adopted an approach to food safety known as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. It requires food companies to identify where hazards could enter food during its preparation for market and to take steps to lower the risk of contamination. Fears of terrorist attacks spawned legislation that has been assisting the federal government in protecting the food supply. The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-188) requires FDA to register food processors, inspect their records, and detain adulterated food. It also requires that FDA issue regulations to ensure the safety of imported foods. In addition, the Act authorizes appropriations for USDA, to be used for enhanced border inspection of food imports of plant and animal origin, lab biosecurity upgrades, and increased research. Food safety issues implicate food security, "mad cow" threats to the food supply, new enforcement authorities for FDA and USDA, and methylmercury in fish. Some Members of Congress continue to be interested in the regulation of bioengineered foods, the growing public health problem of antimicrobial resistance, the safety of fresh produce, egg safety, and reorganizing the federal food safety structure. This report will be updated regularly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In microbiology, protocols are in use to inoculate a micro-organism in a certain niche or in/on a matrix and then study its behavior under the conditions prevailing in that niche or matrix with respect to available nutrients, intrinsic and extrinsic properties and background microbiota. When performed with food pathogens, this type of experiments can contribute to risk assessments and evaluation of microbiological safety in the insect sector. Pathogens can be inoculated during insect rearing to study their transmission potential to the insect, but they can also be inoculated after rearing on harvested and killed insects or in frass to study their survival during processing. Whatever the aim of the inoculation experiment, a lot of factors may influence the conclusions, and hence potentially (legal) criteria prescribed to the sector later. Therefore, a careful and realistic design of such trials is extremely important. In this presentation, an overview will be given of the choices that need to be taken (and that may affect the results) and the difficulties that can arise during inoculation experiments, based on ample experience with such trials in our research group. Choices relate to the selection of strain(s) used as target organism(s), the inoculation procedure, the inoculation level(s) considered, the number of replicates in and repetitions of the whole experiment and the inclusion of proper controls. As to difficulties, the focus will be (i) on how to deal with the background microbiota that often impedes specific monitoring of the inoculated strain(s) and (ii) on possible airborne transmission from inoculated to control samples during rearing. Example results obtained in several projects will be discussed for inoculation tests during rearing of mealworms or black soldier fly (BSFL) with Salmonella or Staphylococcus aureus, as well as during heat treatment of BSFL frass (1h at 70 °C) after inoculation with Clostridium perfringens and Salmonella. Conclusions should be formulated in a correct way with respect to possible colonization, reduction or killing of a pathogen. Also caution is needed when comparing results between different authors and generalizing conclusions, since many aspects relating to the set-up of experiments influence the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the U.S. cooked meat specialist Johnson County Hams has recalled nearly 90,000 pounds of ready-to-eat ham products that may be contaminated with listeria. Topics include the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Food Safety and Inspection Service stated in a statement that the products concerned are ready-to-eat deli-loaf ham items produced by the Johnson County Hams from April 3- October 2, 2018.

The article reports on the decision of U.S. retailer Target to withdraw all the Hampton Creek products it stocks following food safety allegations. The affected Hampton Creek products include its popular Just Mayo eggless mayonnaise brand. Allegations were received by the retailer that the startup's products tested positive for salmonella and listeria. Such allegations were denied by Hampton Creek.

The article discusses studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and collaborators like the Agricultural Research Service on the use of non-antibiotic methods to reduce food-borne pathogens found in the gut of food animals. Early studies were used showing that citrus products provide cows with good roughage and vitamins while essential oils provide a natural antibiotic. The team fed dried orange peel pellets to sheep resulting in tenfold reduction of Salmonella in the intestines.

The article discusses the five-year, 4.9 million-U.S. dollar grant received by scientists at the University of Georgia in 2011 for the study of six processing technologies aimed at killing foodborne pathogens on beef.