The application of genomics is reducing the number of people who become ill from foodborne infections, according to Public Health England.
PHE made the comments in a paper on the transition to use of whole genome sequencing (WGS).
“The introduction of routine WGS has improved national and local surveillance, increased the number of outbreaks being…
Research recently published by scientists in The Netherlands shows that E. coli and Campylobacter bacteria are so common on goat and sheep dairy farms that pasteurization is necessary to prevent contamination of raw milk and products made with it.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and the Dutch Food and Consumer…
There’s good news for millions of children who participate in the program daily: The National School Lunch Program’s strict food safety standards work.
A study led by researchers from the University of Connecticut and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that food safety standards for ground beef supplied to the program are highly effective in…
Next generation sequencing is beginning to replace traditional DNA methods in food safety testing. As this trend continues, sequencing will no longer be the time intensive process it once was. Laboratories will be limited by how quickly they can prepare samples, not how quickly they can sequence them. Automation will, therefore, play an increasingly critical…
Every hour of every day people around the world are living with and working to resolve food safety issues. Here is a sampling of current headlines for your consumption, brought to you today with the support of Alchemy Systems.
Ignoring the dates across the pond
Billing it as a move to reduce food waste,…
When you put one of the toughest bugs on the planet in a match-up with some of the most delicate fresh foods, it doesn’t take a Vegas mathematician to figure the odds are against the food making it through a sterilization process undamaged.
Among the most delicate and most prone to carry foodborne illnesses are…
Ten of the good guys and gals in the battle to defeat foodborne illness just got $2 million from the Center for Produce Safety to help with seek-and-destroy efforts focused on pathogens’ pathways to people via produce.
While fresh fruits and vegetables are undeniably vital for good health, many of them pose a greater risk…
Despite Salmonella being the most common illness-causing foodborne bacteria in the U.S. food system, still very little is known about the precise processes through which the bacterium contaminates and transmits among its most pervasive carriers: chickens. New research from the University of Arkansas, however, is aiming to bridge the gap in knowledge about how Salmonella…
Eating the skinless inner kernels of peanuts may improve a person’s gut biota and its ability to ward off E. coli and Salmonella, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland published in the Journal of Food Science. The findings suggest that skinless peanuts could be a beneficial promoter…
Litmus paper, long known as a low-tech method of testing substances for acidity, might have a new use as a cheap, quick way to test for E. coli, according to researchers at McMaster University in Ontario. The researchers correlated levels of E. coli bacteria with pH values represented by the colors to which the litmus…
