Quantification of Nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum Spore Loads in Food Materials.

We have produced data and developed analysis to build representations for the concentration of spores of nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum in materials that are used during the manufacture of minimally processed chilled foods in the United Kingdom. Food materials are categorized into homogenous groups which include meat, fish, shellfish, cereals, fresh plant material, dairy liquid, dairy nonliquid, mushroom and fungi, and dried herbs and spices. Models are constructed in a Bayesian framework and represent a combination of information from a literature survey of spore loads from positive-control experiments that establish a detection limit and from dedicated microbiological tests for real food materials.

Functional characterisation of germinant receptors in Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium sporogenes presents novel insights into spore germination systems.

Clostridium botulinum is a dangerous pathogen that forms the highly potent botulinum toxin, which when ingested causes a deadly neuroparalytic disease. The closely related Clostridium sporogenes is occasionally pathogenic, frequently associated with food spoilage and regarded as the non-toxigenic equivalent of Group I C. botulinum.

Detection limit of Clostridium botulinum spores in dried mushroom samples sourced from China.

A survey of dried mushrooms (Lentinula edodes (Shiitake) and Auricularia auricula (Wood Ear)) sourced from China was carried out to determine the natural contamination of these mushrooms with spores of proteolytic Clostridium botulinum and non-proteolytic C. botulinum. The mushrooms were collected from supermarkets and retailers in 21 cities in China during October 2008.

Development and application of a new method for specific and sensitive enumeration of spores of nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum types B, E, and F in foods and food materials.

The highly potent botulinum neurotoxins are responsible for botulism, a severe neuroparalytic disease. Strains of nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum form neurotoxins of types B, E, and F and are the main hazard associated with minimally heated refrigerated foods. Recent developments in quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) and food safety objectives (FSO) have made food safety more quantitative and include, as inputs, probability distributions for the contamination of food materials and foods.

The identification and characterization of Clostridium perfringens by real-time PCR, location of enterotoxin gene, and heat resistance.

Clostridium perfringens carrying the enterotoxin gene is an important cause of both foodborne and non-foodborne diarrheal disease. Rapid identification of isolates carrying the enterotoxin gene is invaluable for outbreak investigation whilst information on the genomic location of the enterotoxin (cpe) gene can improve our understanding of disease transmission. This paper describes the validation of a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the identification of C.