A cluster of 34 human cases of listeriosis was traced to consumption of contaminated quargel cheese, a sour milk specialty sold in Austria, Germany and Czech Republic. Here, we try to assess how many portions were consumed by the Austrian population at a certain contamination level (CL). In total, 1623 cheese lots were produced during the outbreak period resulting in >3 million portions of cheese delivered to the market.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhole genome sequencing (WGS) of important foodborne pathogens is a technology under development, but is already employed in routine surveillance by public health agencies and is being increasingly exploited in tracing transmission routes and identifying contamination events (source tracking) that take place in the farm-to-fork continuum. Furthermore, data generated from WGS, complemented by other -omics data, have the potential to be integrated into and strengthen microbiological risk assessment. In this paper, we discuss the contribution of WGS in diverse areas important to food safety and public health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aim to predict the population density of Salmonella spp. through the pork supply chain under dynamic environmental conditions (pH, a(w) and temperature) that fluctuate from growth to survival/slow inactivation. To do this, the dependence of the probability of growth, and of the growth and inactivation rate on the temperature, pH and a(w) were modelled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeat spoilage during distribution can be considered as an ecological phenomenon that encompasses the changes of the available substrata (e.g., low molecular compounds), during the prevailing of a particular microbial association, the so-called specific spoilage organisms (SSO).
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