Foodborne Toxins and Related Diseases and Outbreaks

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 3728

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
National Reference Laboratory for Coagulase-Positive Staphylococci Including Staphylococcus Aureus, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
Interests: food microbiology; food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Reference Laboratory for Coagulase-Positive Staphylococci Including Staphylococcus Aureus, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
Interests: food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

As the social situation due to the recent global pandemic has confirmed, food represents a safe-haven asset for people. This is well depicted by the images of empty shelves in points of sale caused by uncontrolled supplying by consumers. Since in common thinking food must be safe, safety is considered a fundamental prerequisite by authorities, researchers and manufacturers. However, data on foodborne diseases in Europe and in the world suggest that safety guidelines are not  always duly respected in the agri-food chain (production, transport, storage, or home preparation).

Foodborne toxins include bacterial toxins, toxins occurring in poisonous mushrooms, marine biotoxins, plant toxins, etc. According to The European Union One Health 2018 Zoonoses Report, bacterial toxins are responsible for 24.2% of foodborne outbreaks with a known causative agent, among which, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium botulinum, and Clostridium perfringens are the most common.

This Special Issue of Toxins aims to collect the latest investigations on toxins responsible for food poisoning by addressing the topic from multiple points of view and by considering the various stakeholders involved in food safety and in the ongoing FBO investigations.

We are particularly interested in contributions describing:

- Laboratory methods for the detection, identification, and quantification of toxins responsible for food poisoning that can be applied to official controls, HACCP plans, or ongoing FBO investigations

- Studies of the factors favoring the synthesis of toxins and reliable methodologies suitable for implementation in industries for HACCP plans and process management to reduce the risk of toxin production

-Data collection and processing regarding control and monitoring plans for food safety referred as FBO toxins criteria

- Investigation tools and epidemiological models to be applied in case of foodborne toxin-related outbreaks

- Safe food production strategies with reference to the control of toxins responsible for foodborne diseases

Dr. Daniela Manila Bianchi
Dr. Lucia Decastelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • foodborne toxins
  • food safety
  • toxins production
  • method validation
  • quality control/quality assurance
  • foodborne outbreak investigation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 455 KiB  
Article
Foodborne Toxigenic Agents Investigated in Central Italy: An Overview of a Three-Year Experience (2018–2020)
by Valeria Russini, Carlo Corradini, Maria Laura De Marchis, Tatiana Bogdanova, Sarah Lovari, Paola De Santis, Giuseppina Migliore, Stefano Bilei and Teresa Bossù
Toxins 2022, 14(1), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins14010040 - 5 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2859
Abstract
Foodborne diseases (FBDs) represent a worldwide public health issue, given their spreadability and the difficulty of tracing the sources of contamination. This report summarises the incidence of foodborne pathogens and toxins found in food, environmental and clinical samples collected in relation to diagnosed [...] Read more.
Foodborne diseases (FBDs) represent a worldwide public health issue, given their spreadability and the difficulty of tracing the sources of contamination. This report summarises the incidence of foodborne pathogens and toxins found in food, environmental and clinical samples collected in relation to diagnosed or suspected FBD cases and submitted between 2018 and 2020 to the Food Microbiology Unit of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana (IZSLT). Data collected from 70 FBD investigations were analysed: 24.3% of them started with an FBD diagnosis, whereas a further 41.4% involved clinical diagnoses based on general symptomatology. In total, 5.6% of the 340 food samples analysed were positive for the presence of a bacterial pathogen, its toxins or both. Among the positive samples, more than half involved meat-derived products. Our data reveal the probable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of FBD investigations conducted. In spite of the serious impact of FBDs on human health and the economy, the investigation of many foodborne outbreaks fails to identify the source of infection. This indicates a need for the competent authorities to continue to develop and implement a more fully integrated health network. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foodborne Toxins and Related Diseases and Outbreaks)
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