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This study aims to study the distribution characteristics of antibiotic resistance in direct-eating food and analysis of Citrobacter freundii genome and pathogenicity. Residual antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment severely threaten human health and the ecological environment. The diseases caused by foodborne pathogenic bacteria are increasing daily, and the enhancement of antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria poses many difficulties in the treatment of disease.

In this study, six fresh fruits and vegetable samples were selected for isolation and identification of culturable bacteria and analysis of antibiotic resistance. The whole genome of Citrobacter freundii isolated from cucumber was sequenced and analyzed by Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

The results show that 270 strains of bacteria were identified in 6 samples. From 12 samples of direct food, 2 kinds of probiotics and 10 kinds of opportunistic pathogens were screened. The proportion of Citrobacter freundii screened from cucumber was significantly higher than that from other samples, and it showed resistance to a variety of antibiotics. Whole genome sequencing showed that Citrobacter freundii was composed of a circular chromosome containing signal peptides, transmembrane proteins and transporters that could induce antibiotic efflux, indicating that Citrobacter freundii had strong adaptability to the environment. The detection of genes encoding carbohydrate active enzymes is more beneficial to the growth and reproduction of Citrobacter freundii in crops. A total of 29 kinds of ARGs were detected in Citrobacter freundii, mainly conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, carbapenem, cephalosporins and macrolides. The main mechanisms are the change in antibiotic targets and efflux pumps, the change in cell permeability and the inactivation of antibiotics and the detection of virulence factors and ARGs, further indicating the serious risk to human health.

The detection of genomic islands and prophages increases the risk of horizontal transfer of virulence factors and ARGs, which spreads the drug resistance of bacteria and pathogenic bacteria more widely.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not a foodborne infectious disease, but it has dramatically impacted food safety practices worldwide due to its potential for transmission through contaminated surfaces and food. Accordingly, the Omicron variant seems to have affected food-related activities and behaviours and disturbed food supply networks since its appearance in November 2021. Hence, this paper aims to assess how the Omicron variant impacted food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices amongst adult consumers in five countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Russia.

The study is based on an online survey. The questionnaire was developed and revised based on previous research on the impact of previous COVID-19 waves on food-related activities in several countries. The questionnaire was distributed through the SurveyMonkey platform from January 15 to February 25, 2022. It consisted of 29 multiple-choice and one-option questions organised into three sections. A total of 6,483 valid responses were received. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to analyse the survey results.

According to the survey findings, food safety practices evolved during the Omicron wave in the studied countries. Firstly, less than half of the sample used a face mask whilst purchasing food. Secondly, regarding food safety knowledge, the survey results suggest that there is still a lack of knowledge in the studied countries. Thirdly, the survey indicates a lack of knowledge amongst the respondents regarding food safety attitudes. For instance, more than a third of the sample (34.4%) are unsure whether the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through food. These results are surprising and alarming, especially considering that our sample has a higher education than the population of the studied countries.

The main limitation of this research is the sample bias. Survey participants were randomly chosen, enrolled voluntarily and not rewarded. As a result, the questionnaire was self-administered and completed exclusively by people motivated by an interest in the topic. Consequently, our survey does not represent the general population of the studied countries. People with a high degree of education and women, for example, were overrepresented in our sample.

This study is unique in that it is the first to gather information and analyse people’s perceptions of the effects of the Omicron variant on food safety. As a result, the findings of this survey offer a solid basis for future investigations into the impact of the pandemic on food safety in the Balkan region and Russia. This study can help further understand the changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides crucial insights that can be used to guide future decision-making and policy development regarding improving food safety practices. This and other future studies will be a foundation for organisational and government readiness for future shocks, crises and pandemics. The effects of the present Ukrainian conflict on agricultural systems and supply chains throughout the globe (e.g. increased food prices) show that this is timely, urgent and highly required.

The hygiene factor is always imperative when customers consider a certain restaurant, and the information contained in customer reviews can be an efficient approach to gauge a restaurant's hygiene during gaps in the official inspection. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether information obtained from online reviews could predict the upcoming hygiene rating, specifically, evaluating the impact of both qualitative and quantitative content of reviews on the restaurant hygiene rating.

The quantitative research method with big data analytic techniques was applied in this study. In total, 127,656 pieces of data collected from 1,710 restaurants in four major cities in the USA were used in the analysis. Both quantitative factors (i.e. reviewer's numerical rating, days to review, readability, useful/funny/cool) and qualitative factors (i.e. eight emotional dimensions of textual reviews) were analyzed from the online customer reviews and considered in predicting the restaurant's hygiene rating.

Six out of eight emotional dimensions including anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and trust were identified as having significant influences on the restaurant hygiene ratings. While three quantitative variables including days to review, readability and usefulness were identified with significant impacts on the dependent variable of restaurant hygiene rating.

This study opens an avenue for innovative research that establishes a connection between customers' reviews and restaurants' inspection systems. The results allow restaurants to predict an impending hygiene inspection rating upon dynamic assessment of review content and aid in adjusting hygiene measures accordingly.

The authors review the small but growing literature linking cognitive biases to food safety problems and foodborne illness outbreaks.

The authors conducted a search of peer-reviewed articles utilizing empirical methods published since the year 2000 focusing on food safety or foodborne illnesses/outbreaks and cognitive biases.

The authors find that most research is conducted at the consumer side of the food system, with few studies examining the potential problems that can arise in the production and processing of food. The authors also observe that most research tends to focus on a few cognitive biases.

This is the most comprehensive study to date examining insights from the literature on cognitive biases and the related discipline of behavioral economics to the specific problem of foodborne illness outbreaks and food safety problems.

Foodborne disease remains a significant public health threat and cause for concern. Despite numerous studies indicating that the domestic kitchen is a high-risk area for foodborne illness, consumers believe it is low-risk. The type of food being prepared in the kitchen has drastically changed, with an increased use of convenience products, perceived low-risk products. Little is known about consumers' behaviours with convenience meals. Therefore, it is essential to understand actual and perceived food safety behaviours in their use.

A mixed-methods approach using in-home observations and semi-structured interviews was undertaken with participants from the UK and the Republic of Ireland (N = 50). Observational data was summarized using descriptive statistics and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the qualitative data.

In this study general food safety behaviours, such as handwashing, use-by date checking, as well as identifying obvious safety hazard were suboptimal. However, participants' convenience meal safety behaviours were as optimal as possible with the provided instructions. The qualitative data supported the participants' struggle with the provided on-packet instructions. They also displayed participants' uncertain perceptions around different products, for example if oven-products could be reheated multiple times, and varying levels of concern around meat and dairy products. Consumers urged for more detailed and clearer instructions with these products. Recommendations for producers are provided to enhance consumer experience with the use of the products as well as contributing towards ensuring consumer safety.

Mixed-methods approach investigating consumers' real and perceived food safety behaviours.

Food safety management systems (FSMSs) are implemented in food supply chains primarily to adhere to regulations as well as meet customer requirements. The literature contains examples of successful and failed implementation of FSMSs, including the influencing factors. This paper aims to explore the literature on the effectiveness factors of FSMSs to identify the literature findings, the emerging themes and suggestions for future research.

A systematic literature review (SLR) is used to synthesise research on the factors influencing the effectiveness of FSMSs. The methodology consists of formulating the research questions, identifying, selecting and evaluating relevant studies, analysing, synthesising and presenting findings.

The effectiveness factors of FSMSs identified from the literature are clustered into five categories, namely (1) FSMS culture; (2) FSMS inspection, verification and audit; (3) FSMS knowledge; (4) Legal regulations; and (5) Prerequisite programmes. Moreover, it was determined that the effectiveness factors featured in a variety of contexts.

SLR is an objective, rigorous and reliable approach to exploring the effectiveness factors of FSMSs. However, the results are contingent on research studies selected for review, which depends on the research criteria used, available and accessible research studies and the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies. This dependency introduces bias, an intrinsic limitation of the SLR approach.

In this study, the effectiveness factors of FSMSs are identified utilising an SLR approach, integrating findings from previously reported research. The factors and resulting emerging themes identified in this study are beneficial, including in improving food safety management practices.

Fresh vegetables contain advantageous phytochemical components, making them one of the most significant sources of nutrition. The threat of harmful bacteria still exists because these vegetables are not heated in restaurants before being consumed. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the microbial quality of fresh vegetables in restaurants of different levels.

A total of 499 fresh vegetable samples (from sandwiches and fresh-cut vegetable salads) were collected from 3 different types of food service establishment: 201 from international restaurants (IRs), 210 from national restaurants (NRs), and 88 from cafeterias (CAs). The samples were prepared and inoculated on specific growth media. The aerobic mesophilic bacteria (AMB) Campylobacter spp., Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and yeast and molds were counted, and Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli O157 were detected using specialized medium.

High counts of S. aureus, above 3 log cfu/g, suggested that 71.5% of samples collected from NRs and 77.3% from CA were not accepted, whereas 81.6% of samples collected from IRs were accepted. The low population of E. coli, less than 2 log cfu/g, suggested that 99.0, 97 and 92.0 % of samples collected from IRs, NRs and CA, respectively, were accepted. Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157 were absent from every sample. One sample was positive for Salmonella spp. in each of the NR and CA sample groups.

RIs adhere to health and hygiene standards better than NRs and CAs, according to the findings of vegetable contamination tests.

Given the popularity of online video recipes, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential communication of food safety malpractices in YouTube video recipes.

Content analysis of purposively sampled, high-risk chicken salad video recipes (n = 38) using an observational checklist was undertaken. The checklist was based upon the requirements of the Partnership for Food Safety Education “Safe Recipe Style Guide”, which was annotated with visual and verbal communication of food safety practices being “best practice”, “inadequate” or “absent”.

None of the observed video recipes showed visual handwashing at the start of the recipe. Furthermore, there was a distinct lack of visual communication of handwashing during the video recipes.

The lack of visual and verbal food safety communications within video recipes indicates a failure to adequately inform consumers of risks and safeguarding practices.

Previous research has focussed on communication of food safety practices in broadcasted television cookery programmes and published recipe books; this research extends consumer foods safety research to include resources commonly used by consumers to obtain meal inspiration. To date, this is the first study that has utilised the “Safe recipe style guide” as a tool to assess inclusion of food safety messages.

This study aims to examine how customers’ perceptions of the quality and credibility of restaurants’ food safety information influence customers’ information adoption and, consequently, their trust in the restaurant and purchase intention. It also explores the moderating effects of customers’ food safety knowledge and health consciousness.

Participants were asked to read a food safety message from a chain restaurant’s website before taking a self-administered online survey. Using a cross-sectional design, a total of 526 valid responses were collected in the USA through Amazon Mechanical Turk. A two-step approach consisting of a measurement model and a structural equation model was applied to test the direct and indirect effects. Additionally, hierarchical regression models were developed to test the moderating effects.

Results show that perceived information quality significantly affects perceived information credibility and has a significant direct and indirect influence on information adoption. Furthermore, information adoption has a direct positive influence on customers’ trust in the restaurant and an indirect effect on purchase intention (full mediation effect of trust). Finally, the moderation effects of health consciousness and food safety knowledge were supported.

Restaurateurs can apply research findings to increase the likelihood that customers adopt their food safety information and to enhance customers’ trust and, consequently, purchase intention in restaurants.

Reflecting on framing theory and information processing theory, this study examines the ways that customers process restaurants’ food safety information by developing an original conceptual framework with strong empirical data support.

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the validation process of food safety control measures.

The validation of control measures has been analyzed at 50 food companies in Serbia. The sample included companies that produce food of both plant and animal origin and have certified food safety management systems. A total of 156 control measures that combat physical hazards (41.6%), followed by microbial hazards (34.0%) and chemical hazards (24.4%), have been analyzed. To enable quantification of the validation protocols, each control measure was assigned a score.

The validation scores showed that the highest level of validation was observed in large companies, as opposed to small and medium-sized companies (p < 0.05). The type of food safety hazards and the food sector did not reveal any statistical differences in-between the scores. The main approach to validating control measures was referring to the technical documentation of equipment used (52.6%), followed by scientific and legal requirements (30.7%). Less than 20% of the analyzed control measures were validated with operational data collected on-site. No mathematical modeling was observed for the sampled food companies. Future steps should include the development of validation guides for different types of control measures and training modules.

This study can serve as an improvement guide for food safety consultants, food safety auditors, certification bodies, inspection services, food technologists and food managers.

This study is one of the first to provide an insight into how food companies validate their control measures to combat microbial, chemical and physical food safety hazards.