Successful methods for the detection and investigation of outbreaks of foodborne disease are essential for ensuring consumer safety. Increased understanding of the transmission of pathogens in food chains will also assist efforts to safeguard public health. Tracing pathogens in the food chain reviews key aspects of the surveillance, analysis and spread of foodborne pathogens at different stages of industrial food production and processing. Part one provides an introduction to foodborne pathogen surveillance, outbreak investigation and control. Part two concentrates on subtyping of foodborne pathogens, with chapters on phenoytypic subtyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, as well as emerging methods. The vital topics of method validation and quality assurance are also covered. The focus in Part three is on particular techniques for the surveillance and study of pathogens, such as protein-based analysis, ribotyping and comparative genomics. Finally, Part four focuses on tracing pathogens in specific food chains, such as red meat and game, dairy, fish and shellfish. With its distinguished editors and international team of contributors, Tracing pathogens in the food chain is a standard reference for researchers, public health experts and food industry professionals concerned with the study and control of foodborne disease. - Reviews key aspects of the surveillance, analysis and spread of foodborne pathogens - Provides an overview of method validation and quality assurance - Examines the tracing of pathogens in specific food chains, such as red meat, game and dairy

Improving the integrity of the food chain, making certain that food is traceable, safe to eat, high quality and genuine requires new diagnostic tools, the implementation of novel information systems and input from all food chain participants. Food chain integrity reviews key research in this fast-moving area and how it can be applied to improve the provision of food to the consumer.Chapters in part one review developments in food traceability, such as food 'biotracing', and methods to prevent food bioterrorism. Following this, part two focuses on developments in food safety and quality management. Topics covered include advances in understanding of pathogen behaviour, control of foodborne viruses, hazard ranking and the role of animal feed in food safety. Chapters in part three explore essential aspects of food authenticity, from the traceability of genetically modified organisms in supply chains to new methods to demonstrate food origin. Finally, part four focuses on consumer views on food chain integrity and future trends.With its distinguished editors and expert team of contributors, Food chain integrity is a key reference for all those tasked with predicting and implementing actions to prevent breaches in the integrity of food production. - Reviews key research in this fast-moving area and how it can be applied to improve the provision of food to the consumer - Examines developments in food traceability, such as food 'biotracing', and methods to prevent food bioterrorism - Focuses on developments in food safety and quality management featuring advances in understanding pathogen behaviour and control of foodborne viruses

Globalization of the food supply has created conditions favorable for the emergence, reemergence, and spread of food-borne pathogens-compounding the challenge of anticipating, detecting, and effectively responding to food-borne threats to health. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, because it fails to account for the broad array of food-borne illnesses or for their wide-ranging repercussions for consumers, government, and the food industry-both domestically and internationally. A One Health approach to food safety may hold the promise of harnessing and integrating the expertise and resources from across the spectrum of multiple health domains including the human and veterinary medical and plant pathology communities with those of the wildlife and aquatic health and ecology communities. The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop on December 13 and 14, 2011 that examined issues critical to the protection of the nation's food supply. The workshop explored existing knowledge and unanswered questions on the nature and extent of food-borne threats to health. Participants discussed the globalization of the U.S. food supply and the burden of illness associated with foodborne threats to health; considered the spectrum of food-borne threats as well as illustrative case studies; reviewed existing research, policies, and practices to prevent and mitigate foodborne threats; and, identified opportunities to reduce future threats to the nation's food supply through the use of a "One Health" approach to food safety. Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach: Workshop Summary covers the events of the workshop and explains the recommendations for future related workshops.

Foodborne illnesses continue to be a major public health concern. All members of a particular bacterial genera (e.g., Salmonella, Campylobacter) or species (e.g., Listeria monocytogenes, Cronobacter sakazakii) are often treated by public health and regulatory agencies as being equally pathogenic; however, this is not necessarily true and is an overly conservative approach to ensuring the safety of foods. Even within species, virulence factors vary to the point that some isolates may be highly virulent, whereas others may rarely, if ever, cause disease in humans. Hence, many food safety scientists have concluded that a more appropriate characterization of bacterial isolates for public health purposes could be by virotyping, i.e., typing food-associated bacteria on the basis of their virulence factors. The book is divided into two sections. Section I, “Foodborne Pathogens and Virulence Factors,” hones in on specific virulence factors of foodborne pathogens and the role they play in regulatory requirements, recalls, and foodborne illness. The oft-held paradigm that all pathogenic strains are equally virulent is untrue. Thus, we will examine variability in virulence between strains such as Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Cronobacter, etc. This section also examines known factors capable of inducing greater virulence in foodborne pathogens. Section II, “Foodborne Pathogens, Host Susceptibility, and Infectious Dose” , covers the ability of a pathogen to invade a human host based on numerous extraneous factors relative to the host and the environment. Some of these factors include host age, immune status, genetic makeup, infectious dose, food composition and probiotics. Readers of this book will come away with a better understanding of foodborne bacterial pathogen virulence factors and pathogenicity, and host factors that predict the severity of disease in humans.

According to the World Health Organization, one in every ten people worldwide falls ill from eating contaminated food every year, with 550 million cases of diarrheal diseases. Microbiological risk assessment aims to characterize the nature and probability of harm resulting from human exposure to the biological agents that are present in foodstuffs. This assessment must take into account all stages of the chain: from the production of raw materials to consumption. After briefly introducing food safety and risk assessment, this book details the four major steps of microbiological risk assessment. The contributors first present hazard identification and then exposure assessment, which is subdivided into methods for the detection and enumeration of pathogens and for the quantification of the level of exposure. Then, hazard characterization is subdivided into pathogenicity mechanisms and quantification of the dose–response relationship. Finally a guide for microbiological risk characterization is provided. The conclusion presents possible development avenues for microbiological risk assessment, particularly its integration into a holistic assessment of food systems.

One of the challenges to data collection to inform food safety decision making and monitor the implementation and efficacy of control measures to manage specific food safety is the availability of the appropriate methodology. The development of methods for the isolation and identific of pathogenic Vibrio spp. in seafoods is evolving quickly. This often means that methods become more sensitive and efficient but the cost may also increase. However the pace of development also means that there is not always adequate time to to comprehensively validate a method for a particular purpose. This publication aims to provide guidance on the selection on the most appropriate method to meet a particular purpose and how in a constantly changing environment some local validation work can be undertaken to ensure a method meets the current needs of a regulator, industry or risk assessor.