ABSTRACT
The food industry is currently experiencing a rising consumer demand for safer, nutritious and appealing convenience products. At the same time, new risks are encountered due to the changing characteristics of the relevant micro-organisms, changing production methodologies, changes in the environment and the ecology, and an increase in the global trade of food stuffs (Havelaar et al. 2010, Misra et al. 2011b). Recently, in October 2011, fresh, whole cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen farms in the USA were linked to a multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infection (listeriosis) (FDA 2012). In yet another incident in Europe, Escherichia coli O104:H4 bacteria caused a serious outbreak of foodborne illness focussing in northern Germany, in May through June 2011 (Kennedy 2011). The outbreak was originally thought to have been caused by an enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) strain of E. coli, but it was later shown to have been caused by the novel enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strain that had acquired the genes to produce Shiga toxins. Thus, consumer demands, evolving risks
1 School of Food Science & Environmental Health, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin 1, Ireland.
