Food safety at home

Consumers nowadays play a critical role in the prevention of food poisoning. For this reason, the present research was planned to collect data on how aware about food safety consumers are. A questionnaire considering food labelling, hygiene, transport, storage, preparation and kitchen hygiene was designed and submitted to consumers (health district ASL TO5). After questionnaire analysis, a training course was prepared to address specific problems. Kitchens of consentient participants were visited and data on hygiene (check-lists, samples from equipment and fridge surfaces), and fridge temperatures were collected. Questionnaires showed a lack of knowledge on correct food storage, handling, and kitchen hygiene. Households visits showed fridge temperatures above 4°C, highly contaminated washing sponges, and the presence of Listeria spp. in a fridge of a high risk consumer. These results evidence the role of consumer training in reducing foodborne diseases incidence

Food safety: correct information for pregnant women

This study was aimed at investigating the knowledge of pregnant women on food safety with particular attention to the effectiveness of the informative material (pamphlet and poster) prepared in a previous study. To this scope, a questionnaire composed by 8 questions (Likert scaled) was used except for one which was a Y/N question. Themes of the questionnaire were: level of concerns on food safety, and knowledge on foodborne diseases (salomonellosis, toxoplasmosis and listeriosis), risk factors and preventive measures. Results indicate that knowledge increased in respect to that of the previous study, but in relation to informative material previously distributed

Isolation of Listeria monocytogenes in a salami producing plant in Piedmont: use of pulsed field gel electrophoresis to trace contaminations

The ability of Listeria monocytogenes to survive in different environments and establish persistent contaminations is an important issue for food producers. This study aimed to assess the environmental contamination level in an Italian salami producing plant and to identify possible sources of contamination using pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) on L. monocytogenes isolates obtained from environmental (n=54) and meat samples (n=9) collected over 9 months. Detection of L. monocytogenes was performed using the UNI EN ISO 11290-1 procedure and every isolate was characterised with PFGE, using AscI and ApaI restriction enzymes. The environmental detection frequencies were constant both in the first (22%) and the second (27%) visit, thus suggesting the presence of strains adapted to the processing plant. Equipments can represent a reservoir of L. monocytogenes from which it can spread into the whole producing plant. The reservoir was documented by PFGE results which showed several persistent strains. Moreover, PFGE proved the cross-contamination between surfaces and semiprocessed products like pastes, which furthermore have been contaminated by L. monocytogenes in 100% of samples in the first two visits and in 33% in the last visit. This study gave evidence that detection methods and PFGE characterisation can be effective tools to detect possible sources and routes of contamination