Event: microbial contamination of fresh fruit and vegetables

Event: microbial contamination of fresh fruit and vegetables

How has increasing global demand for fresh fruit and vegetables increased the risk of microbial contamination?

Join Dr Gadafi Iddrisu Balali as he presents his research team's review of "Microbial Contamination, an Increasing Threat to the Consumption of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Today’s World" from International Journal of Microbiology.

There is an abundant variety of microbial life, they are able to exist in some of the most extreme environments and are found nearly everywhere. The majority of these are nonpathogenic and make up normal flora, yet the pathogenic varieties can pose substantial risk if care is not taken.

The increasing global population has placed heavier demand on producers for fresh fruit and vegetables. With this increased demand has come a need for faster and larger scale production. Irrigation and washing with unclean water, harvesting equipment and human handling make up some of the largest contributors to contamination of fruit and vegetables and can lead to illness.

This review presents an insight into the epidemiology of microbial contamination, major sources and routes of contamination, outbreaks of food-borne ill

nesses, food safety technologies and policy, and makes recommendations to curb the risk.

Wednesday, September 21st, 2022

10am BST | 11am CET | 5pm China Standard Time

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This blog post is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Illustration adapted from Adobe Stock by Samuel Jennings.