Food-Borne Illnesses and Detection of Pathogenic Microorganisms

In spite of increasingly rigorous food hygiene and food safety regulations food-borne illness continues to increase, costing the global economy billions of dollars annually [1]. Pathogenic microbes are responsible for approximately 30% of all outbreaks, which makes understanding the epidemiology of microbial food-borne illness and the methodology of pathogen detection vital to its control. In 2000, approximately 84% of all microbiological tests performed by the US Food Industry were done to enumerate aerobic colony count (ACC), molds and yeast count (MYC), and coliforms and Escherichia coli, leaving only 16% of tests assessing pathogenic microbes [2]. This chapter reviews recent epidemiological data on food-borne illness worldwide, and discusses the contribution of frozen foods to

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