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Transmission routes that may contribute to the overall picture of campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis were explored by analysing the outside surfaces of 300 retail raw chicken packs for prevalence and enumeration of Campylobacter using a MPN/PCR assay and Salmonella using a MPN/visual immunoassay procedure. The surfaces of 72 packs (24.0 per cent) were externally contaminated with C. jejuni; 32 with counts of <6 MPN/pack and the remaining 40 with counts ranging from 6 to >2,200 MPN/pack. One whole chicken sample (0.3 per cent) was contaminated with S. Tennessee at <6 MPN/pack. The surfaces of offal packs were most contaminated with Campylobacter, with 18 per cent having a count of ≥100 MPN/pack in comparison with chicken portion packs (4/200, 2 per cent) and whole bird packs (1/50, 2 per cent). These observations suggest that packs could be a source of cross‐contamination, however, the contribution of this outer surface contamination pathway to foodborne illness can only be properly determined by development of a validated risk assessment model.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes as an important foodborne pathogen in different kinds of meat.

In total, 410 samples, including fresh and frozen meats of turkey, quail, chicken, ostrich, cattle, sheep and camel, fresh chicken liver and fresh minced meat were gathered and then analyzed according to USDA-FSIS method. To enumerate L. monocytogenes, the MPN procedure was used and also, strains were serotyped by using commercial specific antisera.

It was found that 28.05 percent of samples were positive for L. monocytogenes and the contamination of beef meat was higher than the others. The range of microbial load was from <2 to 940 MPN g−1. Most of the samples (94.39 percent) had a microbial load of <100 MPN g−1. Moreover, 56 percent of the strains belonged to serogroup 1, especially to 1/2a, although, the most frequently isolated serotype was serotype 4b (38.3 percent) in all samples. These findings indicate the potential risk of contamination in different kinds of meats by L. monocytogenes.

This survey is of academic value and of value to those working in the food hygiene and safety. Also, to the best knowledge of these researchers, there has been no serious research on this topic with all its aspects in Iran.

This study aimed to investigate how enteric pathogens and their biofilm populations on fresh produce survive according to time that contamination has occurred on leaves and contamination route: seed irrigation water.

Cress was contaminated in two different ways: contamination of seeds and irrigation water with 8-log MPN/mL bacterial load, Salmonella Newport, Escherichia coli O157:H7, O104:H4 or O78:H2. While contaminated seeds were cultivated for seed contamination, contaminated irrigation was applied at the end of each week to separate groups of samples obtained from cultivated surface-sterile seeds to understand how long these pathogens could survive until harvest.

The results indicated these pathogens survived until harvest, and formed biofilms on cress leaves grown using both contaminated seeds and irrigation water. No significant difference was observed among populations of Salmonella and E. coli groups in terms of survival (∼4.5–6.0 log MPN/g) and biofilm formation (∼4.4–5.7 log MPN/g) for contamination by seed. Also, SEM images revealed biofilm-like structures, the proofs of the attachment of these pathogens on leaf surfaces.

From our knowledge this is the first study focusing on the survival and biofilm formation of one Salmonella serotype (Newport) and three E. coli serotypes (O157:H7, O104:H4, and O78:H2), representing enterohemorrhagic and enteroaggregative E. coli pathogenic subgroups, under the same irrigation and growth schemes. Furthermore, this study mimics the contamination of seeds and irrigation water with sewage or wastewater and may shed light on contamination of fresh produce grown using poor wastewater treatment.

This study describes a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection system combined with enrichment growth conditions for simultaneous detection and identification of C. jejuni, C. coli and thermotolerant Campylobacter in poultry pack rinses. The PCR primers were tested against a range of Campylobacter and non‐Campylobacter species, and PCR products were only amplified from target organisms. The sensitivity of the method was similar to that obtained by conventional plating procedures, but when used in combination with the MPN method of enumeration could detect levels down to 6 MPN/100 ml of rinse. The validation of 50 samples of chicken pack rinses demonstrated the versatility of this approach in microbiological surveys to yield data for risk assessments.

An increasing number of Danish municipalities wish to minimize tax avoidance due to profit shifting in their public procurement. To facilitate this effort, this study aims to develop a firm-level indicator to assess the potential risk of profit shifting (PS-risk) from Danish subsidiaries of multinational corporations to subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.

Drawing from previous research, PS-risk is assumed to depend on the maximum difference in the effective corporate tax rate between the Danish subsidiary and other subsidiaries under the global ultimate owner, in conjunction with the tax regulations relevant to profit shifting. The top 400 contractors in Danish municipalities from 2017 to 2019 are identified and their relative PS-risk is estimated by combining information about corporate ownership structure with country-specific information on corporate tax rates, tax regulations and profit shifting from three independent data sets.

The PS-risk estimates are highly significantly positively correlated across the data sets and show that 17%–23% of the total procurement sum of the Danish municipalities has been spent on contracts with corporations having a medium to high PS-risk. On average, PS-risk is highest for large non-Scandinavian multinational contractors in sectors such as construction, health and information processing.

Danish public procurers may use the indicator to screen potential suppliers and, if procurement regulations permit, to ensure high-PS-risk bidders document their tax practices.

The PS-risk indicator is novel, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the analysis provides the first estimate of PS-risk in Danish public procurement.

The purpose of this study is to characterize and compare the results of the inspection mark of handmade and industrially processed Minas frescal cheese. It is one of the most commonly made and consumed cheeses in Brazil, and its production processes range from handmade cheeses produced in small household production sites to cheeses manufactured in large dairy factories subject to federal inspection.

The samples were stored for 10 days at 4°C in a biochemical oxygen demand chamber. Cheeses were analyzed using physicochemical analyzes, yield and syneresis indices and microbiological analyses.

The cheese A met the criterion of regulatory classification for very high humidity (65.32 g/100 g), while cheese B did not meet the criterion (54.38 g/100 g). Cheeses A (19.01 g/100 g) and B (24 g/100 g) showed average fat contents that did not comply with current legislation. The most probable number per g of thermotolerant coliforms was outside the acceptable range (>24 × 102 MPN/g), and Salmonella spp. were present in the tested samples. The highest yield was observed for handmade cheese (an average of 5.35 L of milk to produce 1 kg of cheese), which had the highest syneresis during the storage period (p = 0.004), reaching 14.26% on the 10th day of storage.

Municipal and state inspection certificates do not ensure the microbiological quality of Minas frescal cheese, indicating flaws in the good manufacturing practices and/or in the milk pasteurisation stage.

The disease burden caused by Campylobacter jejuni may be decreased by reduced consumption of undercooked chicken meat. However, little is known about consumer preparation of poultry and the effects of commonly applied cooking times on bacterial inactivation. This study aimed to answer these questions.

Surveys were mailed in The Netherlands and analysed and laboratory inactivation experiments were conducted for the most frequent preparation method.

The surveys revealed that the predominant way of chicken meat cooking was (stir)frying fillets and that consumers were generally aware of the presence of bacteria on chicken meat. Thorough heating of meat was considered important, which was often checked by visual inspection. In the laboratory, D‐values for C. jejuni were obtained at frying temperatures: D was 1.95 min for artificially contaminated whole and D 0.59 min for diced fillets, respectively under practically relevant conditions. Large variability in survival was found, however.

The paper shows that by combining consumer research and food microbiology it was concluded that the actual risk of consumption of chicken breast fillets that contain surviving C. jejuni is higher than previously assumed.

Key international and intergovernmental organizations assess the size of the Roma population in Serbia to be around 4–600.000, rendering Serbia among the five countries in Europe with the highest percentage of Roma population. Although Roma in Serbia have a long history of self-organization, cultural and media organizations, and are formally recognized as national minorities with a National Council of the Roma National Minority as a body with political decision-making influence, the Roma community in Serbia, as in most other European countries, is the most disadvantaged and underprivileged group in the country, often living in underdeveloped neighbourhoods with limited access to social services, especially education and health.

The educational attainment of the Roma population in Serbia, as in other countries in Europe, is far below the attainment of the general population. The education indicators are showing a developing trend, albeit slow. Roma integration policies evolved in Serbia from the early 2000s in the general policy framework of Equity of Education and Inclusive Education and a comprehensive education reform agenda, promoted and legally endorsed by the 2009 Law on the Foundations of the Education System. As the consequence of such an approach, the Roma integration policies intertwined and mutually reinforced with other reform policy areas. The most important post-2000 policies supporting the integration of Roma students into education are the introduction of pedagogical assistants in elementary schools and preschool institutions as a profession, paid from the budget, abolishing the system of school readiness assessment, introducing individual education plans and intensifying affirmative action and scholarships for enrolment in secondary and tertiary education.

The purpose of this paper was to study some effective evaluation methods for the biocide performance on sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) biofilm.

The most probable number method, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), three-dimensional (3D) photos and epifluorescent microscopy were used in this study.

The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal concentrations of them to sessile SRB were greatly more than planktonic SRB. The EIS of the two biocides indicated that the biofilm exposed to higher concentrations of biocide were much more compact and flat, which perfectly coincided with the SEM, 3D photos and the epifluorescent microscopies.

In this paper, it, thus, appears that these methods evaluating biocide performance on the SRB biofilm were really effective by comparing the performance of bis-quaternary ammonium salt (BAQS) and tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate.