Quantitative assessment of the impacts of cross-contamination during vegetable washing on the microbial risk of infection by Salmonella in ready-to-eat vegetables

Abstract

The consumption of ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetables has grown yearly in Brazil and other countries over the last two decades, due to their convenience, freshness and nutritional quality. However, surveillance data in several countries have also shown an increased association of these products in foodborne disease outbreaks caused by a variety of pathogenic microorganisms. During RTE vegetables processing, washing-disinfection is the only step aiming to ensure inactivation of any contaminating pathogens, but also is the step in which may occur the transfer of microorganism from a contaminated product to uncontaminated products, that is, cross-contamination, mainly if the water parameters are not properly controlled. This project aims to update the quantitative microbial risk assessment model built by Danyluk and Schaffner (2011) for leafy greens in order to determine and quantify the risks of infection by Salmonella due the consumption of RTE vegetables. The update will be achieved using data derived from the pilot scale experiments simulating cross-contamination during washing-disinfection of RTE vegetables developed by the PhD candidate in the first part of her research project in the Food Microbiology laboratory, at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AU)