Risks Associated with Vehicles of Foodborne Pathogens and Toxins

Abstract

A review of foodborne disease surveillance data from the United States for the years 1977 through 1984 was made to ascertain the relative importance of various foods as vehicles; 1,586 incidents were tabulated. Data are given for all outbreaks and for individual diseases. Foods were classified by category, class and item. Seafoods, meats, poultry and salads were the most frequently implicated categories. The most frequently implicated items were roast beef, ham, turkey, chicken and raw clams. Chinese foods, usually fried rice and Mexican-style foods usually ground or shredded meat or pinto beans were also commonly implicated. Of the salads, potato and chicken salads were identified more frequently than other salads. Mahi-mahi was the most common vehicle of scombrotoxin; amberjack/jack was the most common vehicle of ciguatoxin; roast beef and turkey were the most common vehicles of C. perfringens and salmonellae; ham was the most common vehicle of staphylococcal enterotoxin; potato salad was the most common vehicle of shigellae; peppers were the most common vehicle of botulinum toxin; and fried rice was the most common vehicle of B. cereus toxins. Relative risk for each food is discussed in reference to assessing hazards and setting food safety priorities.

Enterotoxicity of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> isolated from beans pudding

“…After preparation, Moin-moin meals are mostly kept at ambient temperature until they are consumed, a situation that encourages the proliferation of pathogenic microbe species that may lead to food intoxication (Bryan 1988). The results from this investigation revealed higher S. aureus count in samples from Hawkers compared to those from Cafeteria and Restaurant.…”

Health and Safety Considerations of Fermented Sausages

“…Although S. aureus can tolerate high salt and low pH and is often implicated in meat outbreaks (ham, pork, and sausages), few incidences on food poisoning from fermented sausages are reported [123,[125][126][127][128][129]. Outbreaks caused by S. aureus are usually old, of which some have been registered by Center for Disease Control [130][131][132][133][134].…”

Inverse Free Radical Suspension Polymerization as a Potential Means to Encapsulate Biologically Active Materials

“…About 95 % of the cases of human salmonellosis are linked to the consumption of contaminated food products [26] and about 44 to 61 % from contaminated muscle food [28,29]. Moreover, the annual economic cost associated with Salmonella infections in the United States is estimated to be between $2.3 billion and $3.6 billion [30,31].…”