Viable bacterial population and persistence of foodborne pathogens on the pear carpoplane

Background: Knowledge on the culturable bacteria and foodborne pathogen presence on pears is important for understanding the impact of postharvest practices on food safety assurance. Pear fruit bacteria were investigated from the point of harvest, following chlorine drenching and after controlled atmosphere (CA) storage to assess the impact on natural bacterial populations and potential foodborne pathogens. Results: Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes were detected on freshly harvested fruit in season one. During season one, chemical drenching and CA storage did not have a significant effect on the bacterial load of orchard pears, except for two farms where the populations were lower 'after CA storage'. During season two, bacterial populations of orchard pears from three of the four farms increased significantly following drenching; however, the bacterial load decreased 'after CA storage'. Bacteria isolated following enumeration included Enterobacteriaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae and Bacillaceae, with richness decreasing 'after drench' and 'after CA storage'. Conclusion: Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes were not detected after postharvest practices. Postharvest practices resulted in decreased bacterial species richness. Understanding how postharvest practices have an impact on the viable bacterial populations of pear fruit will contribute to the development of crop-specific management systems for food safety assurance. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry

Ethical issues concerning automated vehicles and their implications for transport

The introduction of automated vehicles (AV) in the market progresses before the stakeholders fully understand the capacity and the limitations of this complex technology. While this can be considered as a usual course of deployment of a new technology, future large-scale expansion of AV at the societal level makes public acceptance a key issue. One of the main aspects of public acceptance is the ethical concerns raised by AV. In the current chapter, we will mainly review the research on the ethical issues related to ethics-by-design of AV through its moral agency, application of different ethical theories to the decision making in critical situations, and whether ethics setting should be mandatory or personal. Our review shows that while there are several ethical frameworks proposed for AV, research on public acceptance mostly contrasts utilitarian and deontological ethics. Algorithmic implementation of the proposed frameworks, however, is yet to be done. In the second part, we will address several ethical issues relevant for the implementation of AV in transport system and policy decision making