Journal of Food Safety and Hygiene
Volume:7 Issue: 3, Summer 2021

The World Health Organization has published a guide for manufacturers on continuing production during the coronavirus pandemic that should be considered in the regulation of public health and social measures within the scope of COVID-19. Requirements intended by other government agencies or regulatory agencies should be included in the hygiene control applications. This will facilitate both food safety and control of pandemic measures and administrative sanctions. As far as seen that food business has not yet adopted completely the new control measures involving COVID- 19 requirements. It is thought that there is an urgent need for management of safety manufacture conditions taking into account pandemic rules and also official controls of the food manufacturers should be evaluated both food safety and COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Provided that all legislative conditions regarding food safety are valid, additional measures to be taken in Bakery Manufacturing against COVID-19 will be specified in this review. This study is a guide that will contribute to the bakery business operators by revealing which conditions should be included in the Prerequisite Program which was set out general measures and procedures by governments to ensure safe food production chains during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bacteria Listeria monocytogenes can contaminate food and cause disease, not just in underdeveloped, but also in developed countries. Cheese is one of the dairy products that can cause listeriosis if it is consumed with contaminated milk. Sixty samples of traditional unpasteurized white cheese weighing approximately 100 g were obtained from sales centers in Tehran for three consecutive weeks. Then, 25 g of each weighed sample was added to 225 ml of initial enrichment medium and incubated at 30°C for 24 h. In the next step, they were cultured in Polymyxin Acriflavin Lithium-chloride Ceftazidime Esculin Mannitol medium and incubated at 35°C for 24 h. The growth and non-growth of Listeria monocytogenes bacterial colonies were examined, and additional tests were performed. The results of this study showed that out of 60 traditional cheese samples that were examined, based on the results of culture and supplementary tests, one cheese sample (1.6%) was infected with Listeria monocytogenes. In general, our study showed a lower level of contamination by Listeria monocytogenes compared to other studies. Iranian cheeses can be found in many varieties and there are differences in processing traditional cheese in different regions. Thereby, continuous monitoring is required.

The objectives of the study were to evaluate the risk of illness from the consumption of Mutton contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Qatar and to highlight intervention points that would contribute to mitigating its associated risk. The quantitative risk assessment (QRA) methodology was employed to address this objective. Our approach consisted of a combination of deterministic and stochastic approaches. Data on the probability of E. coli O157:H7 in animals, animal products, retail, and humans were obtained through repeat cross-sectional studies. Estimates of the adverse health effects were computed using risk characterization which integrated data on hazard characterization and exposure assessment, including dose-response models. The probability of illness for a healthy female from the consumption of mutton contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 eating at a restaurant ranged from 7×10-3 to 28×10-2 depending on the amount of food consumed. However, the risk for the same female eating at home is less (5×10-3 to 24×10-2). The estimates of illness are three times higher for immunocompromised females exposed either at a restaurant or at home. The risk of illness due to this pathogen could be significantly reduced for either gender under different scenarios by increasing the efficacy of roasting the mutton before consumption.

The presence of mycotoxigenic molds in food potentially poses hazards to healthy living and needs to be controlled. There is a greater risk that the resistance phenomenon will increase in the future due to the frequent use of antibiotics and preservatives, unlike biopreservation. Lactic acid bacteria are capable of producing secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties. This study was conducted to evaluate the antagonistic effect of lactic acid bacteria isolates against toxigenic mold, Aspergillus flavus. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from palm wine, ogi, and yogurt samples, and their antagonistic activity against toxigenic mold was investigated using the agar overlay method. Streptomyces spp. had the highest counts of 15.1×104 cfu/ml, while the least count of 2.0×104 cfu/ml from Lactobacillus plantarum was obtained. Pediococcus damnosus and Lactobacillus plantarum were present in both yogurt and palm wine samples. Similarly, Streptococcus spp. was identified in both yogurt and pap (ogi) samples. Aspergillus flavus was susceptible to half of the lactic acid bacterial isolates with varying degrees of inhibition. Total inhibition of toxigenic mold was observed on the control plate and plates inoculated with L. lactis, S. thermophilus, Leuconostoc mesenteriodes, P. damnosus, and L. bulgaricus. The antifungal activity of lactic acid bacteria suggests their biocontrol efficacy against A. flavus. Also, the antimicrobial properties of lactic acid bacteria can make them a suitable candidate in food preservation. Furthermore, this study can stand as a preliminary step in multistep research to investigate the anti-fungal and anti-aflatoxigenic potential of lactic acid bacteria from fermented foods against toxigenic A. flavus.

Sarcocystis is a mandatory intracellular parasite that is common between humans and animals, which causes huge losses in the livestock and meat industries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Sarcocystis infection in goats slaughtered in Tabriz slaughterhouse. For this purpose, the carcasses of 240 slaughtered goats were examined for the presence of macrocysts by eye observation and then by microscopic by dob-smear and digestive methods. Based on the results, 2.5% of the studied carcasses were diagnosed with macrocytic observation. In the microscopic examination by dob-smear and digestion methods, 35.83% and 100% respectively of the cases were positively diagnosed. There is a significant relationship between contamination and the studied method (p<0.05), which has higher validity digestion than the dob-smear and macroscopic method. There was also a statistically significant difference between the contamination rate among different muscles (p<0.05). As well, the highest microcyst contamination was observed in diaphragm muscles and the lowest microcyst contamination was observed in the heart muscle. This study showed the necessity of microscopic observation of the Sarcocystis contamination in the goat carcasses.

Query fever is an important zoonotic disease caused by the obligate intracellular microorganism of Coxiella burnetii. Moreover, the present study aimed to determine the prevalence of C. burnetii in bulk milk samples from dairy bovine herds using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay. During four seasons, a total of 100 samples of bulk milk from traditional, semi-industrial, and industrial dairy bovine herds located in six cities of Mazandaran province, northern Iran from May 2019 to February 2020 were collected. The samples were subjected to detect C. burnetii using a nested-PCR assay. Twenty - seven out of 100 bulk milk samples (27%, 95% CI: 18.3-35), 7% were infected with C. burnetii. The prevalence was 54.3% (19 samples) in traditional dairy herds and 12.3 % (8 samples) in semi-industrial industrial dairy herds. Furthermore, our results revealed that the chance of milk being infected with C. burnetii bacteria in traditional milk is 8.5 times higher than the milk of semi-industrial and industrial dairy herds. Based on the obtained results of the current study, the highest and lowest prevalence of C. burnetii were seen in Ghaemshar (66.7%) and Babol (0%), respectively (p<0.05). Spring season (37%) had the highest contamination of C. burnetii in bulk milk samples. According to the findings of this study, the clinically healthy dairy cows are important sources of C. burnetii infection in this area, amplified by the traditional herds of these animals. Because these animals can transmit the infection to humans, this common zoonotic bacterium can be a potential health problem in Mazandaran province, Northern Iran.