New Challenges in Foodborne Pathogen Detection in Fresh Produce
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (19 December 2025) | Viewed by 1820
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food safety; foodborne pathogens; microbiological criteria
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: food safety; foodborne pathogens; microbiological criteria; fresh vegetables
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recently, the number of reported foodborne diseases linked to fresh produce has increased in several countries.
Microbial contamination can occur through various means, including animals and insects, soil, water, unclean equipment, and human handling. Microorganisms can attach firmly to plant surfaces or become internalized within plant tissues, which can protect them from industrial or domestic disinfection practices.
Contaminated vegetables and fruits pose a significant health risk because they are often consumed raw or with minimal processing.
Various pathogens are capable of surviving throughout the shelf life of vegetables, even under adverse conditions such as exposure to sanitization, desiccation, low temperatures, frost protection, high UV radiation, and long-distance transportation. These conditions can induce a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state in various pathogens, including Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. The impact of VBNC pathogens contaminating fresh vegetables on human health is not well known, mainly because of the lack of suitable detection methodologies to distinguish them from dead cells.
This Special Issue will bridge the gaps among microbial risk assessment, control strategies, academic research, and practical applications. Therefore, manuscripts addressing the following topics are welcome:
- New rapid methods for the detection of microorganisms in fresh produce;
- New rapid methods able to distinguish microorganisms in a VBNC state from dead cells in fresh foods;
- Applications of rapid methods in the detection of pathogen survival and behavior during the storage and shelf life of fresh vegetables;
- Applications of rapid methods to evaluate the effectiveness of industrial and domestic disinfection techniques in minimizing microbial contamination.
Dr. Dario De Medici
Dr. Elisabetta Delibato
Guest Editors
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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
- microbial detection
- microbial inactivation
- microbial contamination
- disinfection
- sanitation
- fresh vegetables and fruits
- ready-to-eat vegetables
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