The Problems of Raising Produce Free From Illness-Causing Bacteria

Newswise — As investigators actively seek to identify sources and vehicles responsible for the introduction of E. coli O157:H7 onto California spinach that made its way into the food supply this fall, the Journal of Food Science this month provides up-to-date research on the various ways bacteria can survive on fresh produce.

The study, Interactions Affecting the Proliferation and Control of Human Pathogens on Edible Plants, is included in the October issue of JFS, published by the Institute of Food Technologists, the international, not-for-profit scientific society.

Authored by Ohio State University researchers Dan Aruscavage, Ken Lee, Sally Miller, and Jeffrey LeJeune, the study identifies many challenges. This includes:

- Micro-environmental changes that can enhance or adversely affect survival and proliferation of harmful organisms. - Surface characteristics of produce that determine whether pathogens adhere to food.- Protected sites on surfaces and other sites such as plant wounds that may enhance survival and proliferation of pathogens.- Temperature and UV radiation affect enteric pathogen survival. - Competition between organisms.

In their study, the authors write "Future research endeavors have to consider effects of pathogens on both the plants and the humans who eat the plants. A key to safer processing technology is to understand how these foodborne pathogens act on the plant surface."

And "Once the ecology is better understood, effective methods can be designed to either eliminate the hazard pre-harvest or remove them from the plant, post-harvest."

Additional information, including contact information, is available via Ohio State University Extension at: http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=3813

Since 1936, the Journal of Food Science has been IFT's premiere scientific journal, containing peer-reviewed reports of original research and critical reviews of all aspects of food science. JFS publishes more than 500 papers annually in nine issues—more than 3,000 pages of original research and scientific reviews. It is accessible online at http://www.ift.org/jfs.

Founded in 1939, and with world headquarters in Chicago, IFT is a not-for-profit international scientific society with 22,000 members working in food science, technology and related professions in industry, academia and government. As the society for food science and technology, IFT brings sound science to the public discussion of food issues. For more on IFT, see http://IFT.org.