No abstract

Background: Feed contaminated with Salmonella spp. constitutes a risk of Salmonella infections in animals, and subsequently in the consumers of animal products. Salmonella are occasionally isolated from the feed factory environment and some clones of Salmonella persist in the factory environment for several years. One hypothesis is that biofilm formation facilitates persistence by protecting bacteria against environmental stress, e.g. disinfection. The aim of this study was to investigate the biofilm forming potential of Salmonella strains from feed-and fishmeal factories. The study included 111 Salmonella strains isolated from Norwegian feed and fish meal factories in the period 1991-2006 of serovar Agona, serovar Montevideo, serovar Senftenberg and serovar Typhimurium.

The effects of process conditions and growth kinetics on the production of the bacteriocin sakacin P by Lactobacillus sakei CCUG 42687 have been studied in pH-controlled fermentations. The fermentations could be divided into phases based on the growth kinetics, phase one being a short period of exponential growth, and three subsequent ones being phases of with decreasing specific growth rate. Sakacin P production was maximal at 20 degrees C. At higher temperatures (25-30 degrees C) the production ceased at lower cell masses, when less glucose was consumed, resulting in much lower sakacin P concentrations. With similar media and pH, the maximum sakacin P concentration at 20 degrees C was seven times higher than that at 30 degrees C. The growth rate increased with increasing concentrations of yeast extract, and the maximum concentration and specific production rate of sakacin P increased concomitantly. Increasing tryptone concentrations also had a positive influence upon sakacin P production, though the effect was significantly lower than that of yeast extract. The maximum sakacin P concentration obtained in this study was 20.5 mg l(-1). On the basis of the growth and production kinetics, possible metabolic regulation of bacteriocin synthesis is discussed, e.g. the effects of availability of essential amino acids, other nutrients, and energy.

Listeria monocytogenes is ubiquitous in nature and a major concern for the food industry, since it is the causal agent of the serious foodborne illness listeriosis. This organism can be introduced through many routes to food-processing environments and may become established on food-processing equipment. Subsequently, food products may become contaminated during processing. In addition, the bacterium can grow at refrigeration temperatures. Biofilms are regarded as important with respect to the survival and growth of microorganisms in the food industry. Microorganisms growing in biofilms are protected against cleaning and disinfection and are difficult to eradicate. Listeria monocytogenes may grow in biofilms that protect them against environmental stress and can be isolated from surfaces after cleaning and disinfection. For each individual food-processing plant, a limited number of clones of L. monocytogenes may become established and persist for years. Persistent strains adhere to surfaces and form biofilms more readily compared to sporadically found strains, suggesting that adherence to surfaces is important for survival and persistence of L. monocytogenes in food-processing environments. Listeria monocytogenes can adhere to all the materials commonly used in the food industry. In biofilms L. monocytogenes is significantly more resistant to disinfection than its free-living counterparts and thick, complex biofilms are more difficult to remove than adherent single cells of L. monocytogenes. Several novel approaches to avoid adhesion of L. monocytogenes have been proposed, but high costs, practical difficulties or resistance problems limit their practical use. Despite considerable research on the adhesive properties and resistance of L. monocytogenes enabling its survival in the food production environment, a final solution for avoiding establishment of the bacterium has not yet been found.

A community-based sessile life style is the normal mode of growth and survival for many bacterial species. Under such conditions, cell-to-cell interactions are inevitable and ultimately lead to the establishment of dense, complex and highly structured biofilm populations encapsulated in a self-produced extracellular matrix and capable of coordinated and collective behavior. Remarkably, in food processing environments, a variety of different bacteria may attach to surfaces, survive, grow, and form biofilms. Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus are important bacterial pathogens commonly implicated in outbreaks of foodborne diseases, while all are known to be able to create biofilms on both abiotic and biotic surfaces. Particularly challenging is the attempt to understand the complexity of inter-bacterial interactions that can be encountered in such unwanted consortia, such as competitive and cooperative ones, together with their impact on the final outcome of these communities (e.g., maturation, physiology, antimicrobial resistance, virulence, dispersal). In this review, up-to-date data on both the intra- and inter-species interactions encountered in biofilms of these pathogens are presented. A better understanding of these interactions, both at molecular and biophysical levels, could lead to novel intervention strategies for controlling pathogenic biofilm formation in food processing environments and thus improve food safety.

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Surface hygiene is commonly measured as a part of the quality system of food processing plants, but as the bacteria present are commonly not identified, their roles for food quality and safety are not known. Here, we review the identity of residential bacteria and characteristics relevant for survival and growth in the food industry along with potential implications for food safety and quality. Sampling after cleaning and disinfection increases the likelihood of targeting residential bacteria. The increasing use of sequencing technologies to identify bacteria has improved knowledge about the bacteria present in food premises. Overall, nonpathogenic Gram-negative bacteria, especially Pseudomonas spp., followed by Enterobacteriaceae and Acinetobacter spp. dominate on food processing surfaces. Pseudomonas spp. persistence is likely due to growth at low temperatures, biofilm formation, tolerance to biocides, and low growth requirements. Gram-positive bacteria are most frequently found in dairies and in dry production environments. The residential bacteria may end up in the final products through cross-contamination and may affect food quality. Such effects can be negative and lead to spoilage, but the bacteria may also contribute positively, as through spontaneous fermentation. Pathogenic bacteria present in food processing environments may interact with residential bacteria, resulting in both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on pathogens in multispecies biofilms. The residential bacterial population, or bacteriota, does not seem to be an important source for the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to humans, but more knowledge is needed to verify this. If residential bacteria occur in high numbers, they may influence processes such as membrane filtration and corrosion.

The antibacterial effect of disinfectants is crucial for the control of Listeria monocytogenes in food processing environments. Tolerance of L. monocytogenes to sublethal levels of disinfectants based on quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) is conferred by the resistance determinants qacH and bcrABC. The presence and distribution of these genes have been anticipated to have a role in the survival and growth of L. monocytogenes in food processing environments where QAC based disinfectants are in common use. In this study, a panel of 680 L. monocytogenes from nine Norwegian meat- and salmon processing plants were grouped into 36 MLVA profiles. The presence of qacH and bcrABC was determined in 101 isolates from the 26 most common MLVA profiles. Five MLVA profiles contained qacH and two contained bcrABC. Isolates with qacH and bcrABC showed increased tolerance to the QAC Benzalkonium chloride (BC), with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 5-12, 10-13 and <5ppm for strains with qacH (two allele variants observed), bcrABC, and neither gene, respectively. Isolates with qacH or bcrABC were not more tolerant to BC in bactericidal tests in suspension or in biofilms compared with isolates lacking the genes. Water residue samples collected from surfaces in meat processing plants after QAC disinfection had bactericidal effect against L. monocytogenes when the sample BC levels were high (>100ppm). A sample with lower BC concentrations (14ppm of chain length C-12 and 2.7ppm of chain length C-14) inhibited growth of L. monocytogenes not containing bcrABC or qacH, compared to strains with these genes. The study has shown that L. monocytogenes harbouring the QAC resistance genes qacH and bcrABC are prevalent in the food industry and that residuals of QAC may be present in concentrations after sanitation in the industry that result in a growth advantage for bacteria with such resistance genes.