Preventing Foodborne Pathogens With Plant-Derived Compounds with Karl Matthews

Karl Matthews, Ph.D., Professor of Microbial Food Safety at Rutgers University, discusses ways to eliminate pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria from fresh fruits and vegetables. He highlights the importance of preventative measures from farm to table, including the use of water antimicrobials, like chlorine, and photosensitizers, like curcumin.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/6Wkef9RyUVE

Ashley's Biggest Takeaways We consume billions of microorganisms in the food that we eat each day. Fresh fruits and vegetables that are not thermally processed are likely to carry a higher microbial load than cooked foods. Many of those microbes are not concerning to human health. However, when pathogens of human health concern are present, the food can become unsafe to eat. Scientists use many methods from pre-harvest through post-harvest to keep food free of human pathogens. Water antimicrobials, such as chlorine, and photodynamic inactivation using photosensitizers, such as curcumin, are 2 preventative measures that Matthews and colleagues are investigating. Curcumin is a natural chemical compound found in the turmeric plant. It is responsible for giving tumeric its yellow color. Curcumin is also a photosensitizer, meaning that it can absorb light energy and transfer it to another molecule to initiate chemical reactions that produce cytotoxic singlet oxygen. Featured Quotes When I look at [what makes fruits and vegetables safe to eat] as far as from a microbiological perspective, it's are they free of pathogens of human health concern? And so, we might think about organisms, such as Salmonella or the Shiga toxin producing E coli or Listeria.

There are a number of processes and initiatives that are put into place, from the pre-harvest through post-harvest levels to try to ensure that the product is not contaminated with microorganisms of human health concern.

Each day, we're consuming literally billions of microorganisms in the foods that we eat, and particularly the raw fruits and vegetables that we're eating that are not being thermally processed in any fashion by which you might reduce the microbial load.

Oftentimes we think about the bacteria that might well be there. But we do know that there's viruses that could be present. There's certain type of protozoa that might be present. Many of us know of norovirus and the concerns associated with that particular pathogen. So, there's a multitude of microorganisms that might well be asso