Volatilomes reveal specific signatures for contamination of leafy vegetables with Escherichia coli O157:H7

Transmission of foodborne pathogens by plants, especially shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, has become a public health concern for ready-to-eat products. Due to the patchy distribution on commodities, random sampling before processing and following packaging cannot reliably exclude presence pathogenic microbes. Robust, cost-effective, reliable methods monitoring E. coli fresh produce are therefore urgently needed. We investigated whether volatile organic compounds suitable detection O157:H7 contamination leafy vegetables. Using solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we analyzed volatilomes spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) rocket (Eruca sativa leaf lysates, common culture medium (lysogeny broth), in absence O157:H7. Volatile profiles varied nutrient medium. found higher proportions indole, phenylmethanol, 2-methoxyphenol, ethanol, propan-1-ol, decan-1-ol, tridecan-1-ol, nonan-2-one tridecan-2-one headspace from inoculated compared non-inoculated samples. This demonstrates that detecting vegetables In future work will focus adapting assay screening under different conditions, including intact damaged baby leaves, packages, or batches, increasing its sensitivity.