Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) is the most prevalent cause of food-borne intoxications worldwide. Consumption of enterotoxins preformed in food causes violent vomiting and can be fatal in children and the elderly. While being repressed by competing bacteria in most matrices, Staphylococcus aureus benefits from crucial competitive advantages in foods with high osmolarity or low pH. During r...

To date, 21 different staphylococcal enterotoxins have been described (known by letters of the alphabet, A V, although a few letters are missing from the sequence). All are heat stable, water-soluble proteins and retain their activity in the digestive tract after ingestion. Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), either alone, or in combination with other staphylococcal enterotoxins, is the one mos...

Salmonellosis is one of the most frequently occurring food borne illness resulting from the ingestion of viable cells of a member of the genus Salmonella. Eggs, poultry, meat and meat products are reported to be the most common food vehicles of salmonellosis to humans (Oosterom, 1991; Jay, 1992; Davies and Wray, 1996). Human illness caused by infection with Salmonella spp. increased worldwide b...

Acute and chronic illnesses and death due to contaminated food continue to be serious public health concerns in developing countries, with a disproportionally high burden borne by children under five (Kirk et al., 2010 [1]). In addition to health concerns, foodborne illnesses also have serious economic consequences in terms of lost wages and productivity (Henson, 2003 [2]). The number cases rep...

We present the first complete genome sequence of a Staphylococcus aureus strain assigned to clonal complex 12. The strain was isolated in a food poisoning outbreak due to contaminated potato salad in Switzerland in 2009, and it produces staphylococcal enterotoxin B.

Staphylococcal poisoning is a common food-borne disease for which immunoassays to detect enterotoxins were developed, but these assays often lead to false diagnoses due to interferences or lack of specificity. Absolute quantitative mass spectrometry was for the first time successfully applied to an investigation of a staphylococcal outbreak due to coconut pearls.

September is National Food Safety Education Month. One of CDC’s food safety objectives is to raise awareness about healthy practices to prevent food poisoning. Every year in the United States, an estimated one in six persons (48 million persons) become ill, and 3,000 die from eating contaminated food (1). Some persons are at higher risk for foodborne illnesses (food poisoning) or might experien...

Results from our model suggest that eating Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis-contaminated shell eggs caused 182,060 illnesses in the United States during 2000. Uncertainty about the estimate ranged from 81,535 (5th percentile) to 276,500 illnesses (95th percentile). Our model provides but 1 approach for estimating foodborne illness and quantifying estimate uncertainty.

Food poisoning due to Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is a major food health problem, particularly in terms of meat consumption. Due to human’s susceptibility to this pathogen, detection methods and prevention measures should be implemented to reduce its incidence. Several pathogenic strains of C. perfringens have been identified so far. One of the potential concerns about this bacteri...