Foodborne Pathogen Growth, Toxin Production and Strain Variability in Food
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food microbiology and safety; strain variability; foodborne pathogens; growth; virulence; enterotoxins; mycotoxins; molecular microbiology; predictive microbiology; microbial risk assessment of foods
Interests: food science and technology; dairy science; food microbiology and safety; food microbiology; probiotics; meat science & technology; dairy microbiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: food microbiology and safety; predictive microbiology; predictive mycology; mycotoxins and climate change; microbial interaction; food biopreservation; bacteriophages; near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) spectroscopy; microbial risk assessment of foods
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Foodborne bacteria and moulds present significant challenges to food safety worldwide due to their ability to survive and grow under diverse environmental conditions and produce harmful toxins that threaten public health. Strain-level variability is crucial in modulating virulence, toxin production, and stress resistance phenotypes. This Special Issue aims to highlight cutting-edge research on microbial growth and toxin production dynamics in food systems, strain-dependent responses to biotic and abiotic stressors, and the molecular/physiological basis of intra-species variability. We particularly seek manuscripts addressing novel mitigation strategies, including biopreservative agents, predictive microbiology and genomic tools, emerging non-destructive analytical technologies, and the impact of climate change on microbial behaviour. By compiling multidisciplinary research, this Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of microbial hazards in the food chain and support the development of more accurate and robust risk assessment frameworks.
Dr. Araceli Bolívar
Prof. Dr. Luis M. Medina
Guest Editors
Dr. Jean Carlos Correia Peres Costa
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- foodborne pathogens
- growth
- strain variability
- enterotoxins
- mycotoxins
- predictive microbiology
- biopreservation
- climate change
- microbial risk assessment
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