Monitoring Microbial Contamination Along the Food Chain: New Opportunities Enabled by Molecular Methods
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 88
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food safety; microbial risk assessment; data analysis; predictive microbiology
Interests: microbial safety; fresh produce; VBNC (viable but non-culturable) cells; disinfectants; biomarkers; faecal contamination
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: food safety; microbial risk assessment; food consumer behavior; phenotypic and genotypic print; predictive microbiology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Microbial contamination of foods is unavoidable along the food supply chain. Therefore, methods able to analyse the food microbiota, identifying potential pathogens, are essential for food safety. The advancements in molecular biology (“omic” techniques) during the last two decades have provided us with novel tools that have improved our ability to identify hazardous contaminants, complementing classical methods. Furthermore, molecular biology (e.g., WGS) provides additional insights that can be used to track an outbreak to its origin, assess the persistence of a pathogen or develop targeted strategies.
This Special Issue addresses the state of food safety monitoring systems for bacterial hazards, putting a focus on how molecular methods can improve classical ones. We welcome both original research and review articles on topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Novel methods for pathogen detection;
- Prevalence and contamination levels of bacterial pathogens in foods;
- Source tracking using molecular microbiology methods;
- Analysis of pathogen persistence in food production environments;
- Development of targeted interventions from biological markers;
- Use of Machine Learning and AI to exploit monitoring data;
- Integration of “omic” methods into risk assessment and risk management;
- Resistome profiling for antimicrobial resistance monitoring in food systems;
- Food microbiome and its relation to food safety assessment.
Dr. Alberto Garre
Dr. Pilar Truchado
Guest Editors
Dr. Angelica Godinez
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
- food safety
- microbial hazards
- whole genome sequencing
- metagenomic analysis
- food microbiome
- root-cause analysis
- source-tracking
- biological markers
- prevalence
- food safety monitoring
- food safety surveillance
- risk assessment
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