The scale of the potential problem is difficult to overstate. Foodborne pathogens infect an estimated 7.7 percent of the global population each year and contribute to roughly 7.5 percent of all deaths, with some 600 million outbreaks of foodborne illness occurring annually across 31 recognized illness types. India, as a major livestock-rearing nation, carries a particularly high burden: approximately 60 percent of its emerging and re-emerging pathogens are believed to pass from food and environmental sources to humans. Between 2008 and 2017, the country’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Program recorded more than 15,000 disease outbreaks, of which 2,688 were foodborne, and 58 of those were traced to meat, poultry, and eggs. Gujarat itself ranks among the Indian states with the highest reported average outbreak counts, making systematic surveillance in the region a pressing public health priority.

The research team, led by scientists at the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre with collaborators from the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom, designed their study around the concept of poultry distribution networks. Rather than sampling randomly, they mapped the commercial pathways along which broiler chickens and indigenous desi chickens move from farms to consumers, then selected eight cities—Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Bhuj, Godhra, Himatnagar, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara—based on poultry density and network position. This approach reflects a key insight of modern food safety science: pathogens do not spread uniformly across a landscape but travel along the same routes as the animals themselves, concentrating risk at particular hubs of production, transport, and sale.

Between August 2021 and March 2022, the team collected 750 cecal samples from chickens to detect Campylobacter species, 150 cloacal samples for E. coli, and 150 environmental swabs from farm and shop surfaces to screen for non-typhoidal Salmonella. Only birds that appeared healthy and met breed-specific weight standards were included, meaning the study likely understates the true pathogen load. Campylobacter was cultured using the international ISO 10272-1:2017 protocol on selective charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar under microaerophilic conditions at 42 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which these thermophilic bacteria thrive while competing microbes are suppressed. Identification proceeded in stages: biochemical tests, then matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry, then multiplex PCR targeting genus- and species-specific genes, and finally 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to confirm the most definitive identifications.

The results revealed a striking pattern of geographic and biological heterogeneity. Of the 750 cecal samples, 77 yielded confirmed Campylobacter isolates: 56 were Campylobacter coli, giving an overall prevalence of 7.46 percent, and 21 were Campylobacter jejuni, at 2.8 percent. Statistical analysis showed a significant association between city and C. coli prevalence, with Rajkot recording the highest rate at 13.04 percent and Himatnagar and Vadodara the lowest. Peak positivity appeared in broiler shop samples from Surat at 17.5 percent and in desi chickens from shops in Bhuj at 16.7 percent. Meanwhile, E. coli turned up in 51.33 percent of the sampled birds, a much higher rate that nonetheless varied far less between cities, suggesting this commensal-turned-opportunist is distributed fairly uniformly across the region’s poultry operations.

Perhaps the most intriguing biological finding concerned the desi chickens, India’s indigenous, often free-range birds. Not a single C. jejuni was detected in any of the 240 desi shop samples, while C. coli was present in 10 percent of them. This pattern held across every city. The researchers suggest two non-exclusive explanations: desi birds may possess inherent resistance to C. jejuni colonization, possibly rooted in genetic differences in gut microbiota or mucosal immunity, or their scavenging lifestyle simply exposes them to environmental C. coli rather than the dense horizontal transmission of C. jejuni that characterizes crowded commercial flocks. Farm-raised broilers showed the opposite tendency, with C. jejuni detected at 4.8 percent versus 2.4 percent for C. coli, reinforcing the idea that production system shapes which pathogen dominates. The study also noted seasonal effects, with Campylobacter prevalence dipping during the monsoon and rising from January to March.

The antimicrobial susceptibility testing painted a grimmer picture. Using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method with 34 antibiotics for Campylobacter and 35 for E. coli across nine drug classes, the team found resistance exceeding 80 percent among Campylobacter isolates against a long list of clinically important drugs, including piperacillin/tazobactam, ampicillin/sulbactam, azithromycin, penicillin, and tetracycline. In total, 55.74 percent of Campylobacter isolates were multidrug-resistant. The E. coli results were even more dramatic: every one of the 77 isolates was resistant to vancomycin, a glycopeptide reserved as a last-line treatment for Gram-positive infections in humans, while 61.03 percent of E. coli isolates met the criteria for extensive drug resistance and 9.09 percent were pan-drug resistant. Nearly 30 percent of E. coli isolates showed resistance spanning glycopeptides, nitrofurantoin, macrolides, tetracyclines, beta-lactams, and fluoroquinolones.

Why does resistance reach such levels here? The authors point to the common practice in the study region of administering antibiotics prophylactically, as feed additives to keep flocks healthy. Farmers frequently use enrofloxacin, neomycin, levofloxacin, oxytetracycline, gentamicin, amikacin, and doxycycline, and antimicrobials are easily purchased over the counter without veterinary prescription. Resistance to one class of antibiotics can trigger or spread resistance to others, even those not present in the feed, because the underlying resistance genes often travel together on mobile genetic elements. The multiple antibiotic resistance index, which measures the proportion of tested drugs an isolate resists, exceeded the 0.2 threshold that signals high-risk environments for resistance gene dissemination in 60 of 61 Campylobacter isolates and all E. coli isolates.

The study is not without limitations, which the authors acknowledge candidly. Participation was voluntary, potentially introducing selection bias, and clinically ill birds were excluded, likely lowering measured prevalence. The sampling window could not capture the full seasonal range, and environmental surveillance relied on surface swabs rather than bulk soil samples, which may explain why no non-typhoidal Salmonella was detected—a null result that contrasts with studies elsewhere in India and abroad. Future work incorporating deeper soil sampling, along with water, feed, and airborne sources, would give a more complete picture of transmission routes through the poultry environment.

Nevertheless, the implications are clear. Raw or improperly cooked poultry meat can serve as a vehicle for transmitting these resistant organisms to humans, and the high prevalence of resistance against first-line clinical drugs poses a genuine threat to treatment options for foodborne infections. The researchers argue that coordinated policy action is needed at every stage of the food chain: regulating antibiotic use, mandating veterinary oversight of prescriptions, improving farm hygiene and biosecurity, and establishing continuous surveillance of resistance patterns in poultry, the rearing environment, and human populations. As India’s appetite for poultry continues to grow alongside intensification of production, the study stands as a warning that the same networks moving birds to market can also move something far harder to contain—bacteria that no longer respond to the drugs designed to stop them.

Subject of Research: Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter and E. coli in Gujarat's poultry distribution network

Article Title: Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles of Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, and Escherichia coli in the poultry distribution network

Article References: Dantroliya, S., Chavan, M., Mittra, D., Pandit, R., Tomley, F., Blake, D., Koringa, P., Joshi, C., Shekh, S., Joshi, C., & Joshi, M. (2026). Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles of Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, and Escherichia coli in the poultry distribution network. Frontiers in Antibiotics, 5, Article 1875259. https://doi.org/10.3389/frabi.2026.1875259

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frabi.2026.1875259

Keywords: Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, antimicrobial resistance, poultry, Gujarat, One Health, foodborne pathogens, live bird markets, broiler chickens, drug resistance, food safety

The research focused on children under five years of age, the group in which Campylobacter infections hit hardest. In this age band, diarrheal disease remains a major contributor to illness and death worldwide, and Campylobacter jejuni is frequently implicated alongside better-known culprits such as Salmonella and pathogenic Escherichia coli. Infection typically produces fever, abdominal cramps and bloody or watery diarrhea, and while most cases resolve on their own, severe episodes in malnourished or very young children can demand antibiotic treatment. That is precisely where resistance matters most: when clinicians in resource-limited hospitals must choose a drug empirically, without laboratory guidance, the local resistance landscape determines whether a child recovers quickly or deteriorates while ineffective therapy is administered.

To capture that landscape, the team collected stool samples from children under five presenting with diarrhea at six hospitals in Sana’a: Al Zahrawi Hospital, Algamohory Hospital, Alkowit Hospital, Al-Sabeen Hospital, Al-Thowraha Hospital and Ibn Khaldun Hospital. Samples were processed using culture methods optimized for Campylobacter, a fastidious organism that requires reduced oxygen, elevated carbon dioxide and selective media to grow reliably in the laboratory. Isolates were then subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing following standards set by the Clinical Laboratories Standards Institute, using Mueller-Hinton agar as the testing medium. In parallel, the researchers turned to molecular identification, sequencing the 16S rRNA gene, a slowly evolving component of the bacterial ribosome whose sequence serves as a molecular fingerprint for species-level identification, and constructing phylogenetic trees to compare their isolates with reference strains held in international databases.

The headline number from the study is a prevalence of 2.8 percent, with 11 of 389 children testing positive for Campylobacter jejuni. That figure may appear modest, but in the context of a single-city hospital survey of a pathogen that is notoriously difficult to culture, it represents a meaningful baseline for a country that has lacked systematic campylobacteriosis surveillance. The researchers also broke the results down by demographic and behavioral factors, and the patterns that emerged read like a map of transmission routes. Prevalence was higher among girls, at 3.5 percent, and among children aged 36 to 47 months, where it reached 6.2 percent. Children living in rural areas showed a prevalence of 3.5 percent, and infections clustered in the summer months, when 7.2 percent of sampled children in that season carried the bacterium.

The behavioral and environmental associations were particularly telling. Children who had contact with animals showed a prevalence of 4.3 percent, those who drank water from tap sources 5.6 percent, and those who consumed unpasteurized milk 3.7 percent. Each of these routes is well established in the international literature: Campylobacter jejuni colonizes the intestines of poultry, cattle and other animals without making them sick, contaminates water supplies through fecal shedding, and survives in raw milk, where even small doses can cause infection. In Yemen, where household animal keeping is common, municipal water treatment is inconsistent, and unpasteurized dairy remains part of traditional diets, these findings point to concrete, actionable interventions, from hand hygiene after handling animals to water treatment and safer food handling practices.

The antimicrobial results are the study’s most consequential contribution. The isolates displayed high resistance to macrolides, the drug class that includes erythromycin and azithromycin, which are internationally regarded as first-line treatments for severe campylobacteriosis, especially in children, for whom fluoroquinolones are often restricted. High resistance to aminoglycosides was also documented. Macrolide resistance in Campylobacter is particularly worrying because it arises through mutations in the ribosomal target and, once established in a population, tends to persist and spread. In many high-income surveillance systems, macrolide resistance in human Campylobacter isolates remains comparatively low, so the pattern observed in Sana’a signals a local treatment crisis: the drugs most likely to be prescribed for a sick child may simply not work.

By contrast, the isolates remained relatively susceptible to several other agents, with resistance recorded at 18.2 percent for ciprofloxacin, 27.3 percent for tetracycline and 27.3 percent for nalidixic acid. While these figures still represent substantial resistance by global standards, they suggest that, at present, some therapeutic options retain activity against Campylobacter jejuni circulating in Sana’a. The authors caution, however, that susceptibility patterns can shift rapidly under continued antibiotic pressure, and that fluoroquinolone resistance in Campylobacter has risen steeply in many parts of the world following the use of these agents in poultry production. Sustained local susceptibility testing, they argue, is essential to keep empirical treatment guidelines aligned with reality on the ground.

The molecular arm of the study added a layer of confidence that culture alone cannot provide. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene confirmed the identity of the isolates as Campylobacter jejuni with sequence identity of at least 99.6 percent against reference sequences, and phylogenetic analysis placed the Yemeni isolates in clusters closely related to established reference strains. This matters for two reasons. First, phenotypic identification of Campylobacter can be ambiguous, and molecular confirmation guards against misclassification that would distort prevalence and resistance statistics. Second, phylogenetic context allows researchers to begin tracing how strains circulate between animals, food, water and humans, a prerequisite for understanding transmission dynamics in a setting where such data have been almost entirely absent. The authors note that future work should employ advanced techniques to detect the antibiotic resistance genes themselves, and should use specialized genetic primers capable of differentiating between Campylobacter subspecies, alongside larger samples drawn from more diverse populations and methods such as multi-locus sequence typing and whole-genome sequencing.

The study was conducted with formal ethical oversight, receiving approval from the Research Ethics Review Committee at the Faculty of Science, Sana’a University under number BM-02-23, dated 11 April 2021, and complying with Yemeni Public Health Law No. 4 of 2009 and the Declaration of Helsinki. Because all participants were children under five, written informed consent was obtained from their parents or legal guardians before enrollment. The research team spanned several Yemeni institutions, including Sana’a University’s Faculty of Science, Hajjah University, Al-Razi University, Al Mahwit University and Ibb University, a collaboration that reflects both the country’s scientific capacity and the logistical challenges of conducting microbiological research amid prolonged instability. The work was published open access, with the article accepted on 21 September 2026 and published on 24 September 2026.

For global health observers, the Sana’a study is a reminder that antimicrobial resistance is not a problem confined to wealthy nations with dense surveillance networks; it evolves wherever antibiotics are used, and it is most dangerous precisely where the capacity to detect it is weakest. The authors close with a call that is as much public health as laboratory science: raising community awareness of hand hygiene after contact with animals, promoting safe food handling, encouraging water treatment, and curbing imprudent antibiotic use. Those measures, combined with expanded epidemiological studies and molecular surveillance, would give Yemeni clinicians something they currently lack, namely an evidence base for treating the youngest and most vulnerable patients with the right drug the first time, while slowing the further march of resistance in a pathogen that thrives at the intersection of animals, water, food and childhood.

Subject of Research: Molecular detection and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter jejuni in children with diarrhea in Sana'a City, Yemen

Article Title: Molecular detection and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from children under five years in Sana’a City, Yemen

Article References: Al-Thobhani, A., Alghalibi, S. M., Abdullah, Q. Y., Edrees, W. H., Al-Nowihi, M., Al-Arnoot, S., Al-Bana, M. N., Al-Akhali, B., & Al-Shehari, W. A. (2026). Molecular detection and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from children under five years in Sana’a City, Yemen. BMC Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-026-14520-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12879-026-14520-y

Keywords: Campylobacter jejuni, diarrhea, children under five, antimicrobial resistance, 16S rRNA sequencing, Yemen, Sana'a City, macrolide resistance, foodborne pathogens, public health, phylogenetic analysis, water and food safety

The research team, led by L. Marcela Montilla Rodríguez and colleagues, mined a retrospective dataset of 1,868 food samples collected by official surveillance programs between 2017 and 2023. Of these, 1,846 samples carried enough information to be included in the inferential statistical analyses. The outcome of interest was deliberately strict: a sample was classified as microbiologically non-compliant if it failed to meet at least one regulatory microbiological criterion, regardless of whether the failing indicator was a harmless marker of poor hygiene or a confirmed foodborne pathogen. By the end of the analysis, 39.5 percent of all evaluated samples had crossed that threshold — a figure that means nearly two in five ready-to-eat products tested by regulators in the region over seven years violated at least one microbiological standard.

The identity of the failing indicators is where the story becomes genuinely instructive. Hygiene indicators, rather than virulent pathogens, dominated the non-compliance landscape. Total coliforms were the single most common reason for failure, appearing in 29.0 percent of samples, followed by aerobic mesophilic bacteria at 12.7 percent and Escherichia coli at 12.3 percent. Genuine foodborne pathogens — the organisms most likely to trigger outbreaks — were detected only infrequently. This pattern matters because it reframes what surveillance in tropical LMIC settings is actually catching: not dramatic contamination events with exotic killers, but chronic, systemic lapses in basic hygiene and process control that show up in indicator organisms long before a pathogen necessarily appears.

To move beyond simple counts, the researchers applied multivariable logistic regression, a statistical technique that estimates the independent effect of each factor on the odds of non-compliance while holding all other measured variables constant. The results were striking in their magnitude. Raw or highly handled foods — products that receive extensive manual manipulation after any initial processing — had 8.40 times higher odds of microbiological non-compliance than thermally processed foods, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 6.59 to 10.72. In practical terms, a ready-to-eat salad, cut fruit, or hand-assembled sandwich in this dataset was more than eight times as likely to fail a microbiological criterion as a thermally processed equivalent. Heat, it turns out, remains the most reliable intervention in the entire food safety toolkit, and its absence defines the highest-risk category.

Geography and time also left measurable fingerprints. Samples collected in rural or dispersed municipalities — settlements scattered across the vast Orinoquía plains, far from dense urban infrastructure — showed 1.31 times higher odds of non-compliance than samples from other areas, with a confidence interval of 1.01 to 1.70. The effect is modest compared with the food-type effect, but it is statistically real, and it points toward structural disadvantages: longer and less controlled cold chains, fewer certified processing facilities, and thinner regulatory coverage per square kilometer. Rural dispersed territories in tropical LMICs are precisely the environments where electricity reliability, refrigeration capacity, and inspection frequency tend to be weakest, and the data suggest those weaknesses translate into measurably dirtier food.

Time told its own story. Samples collected in 2020 — the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic — carried 1.78 times higher odds of non-compliance than samples from other years, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 1.16 to 2.74. The pandemic disrupted nearly every link in the food chain: labor shortages in processing plants, strained cold chains, redirected inspection resources, and shifts toward takeaway and delivery formats that increased handling. The 2020 signal in this dataset is consistent with the hypothesis that public health emergencies degrade food safety systems in ways that show up in routine surveillance, even when the surveillance itself continues to function.

Beyond the regression models, the team deployed exploratory tools that are increasingly common in modern food safety analytics: heatmaps and principal component analysis. These methods compress thousands of sample-level observations into visual and mathematical summaries that reveal structure invisible to simple tabulation. What emerged was a picture of pronounced heterogeneity — microbiological profiles differed across temporal, territorial, operational, and food-related dimensions, meaning that the microbial signature of a failed sample depended on when it was collected, where it came from, how it was handled, and what kind of food it was. Yet cutting across all that heterogeneity was one consistent thread: hygiene indicators predominated everywhere, in every stratum the researchers examined.

The authors draw a consequential policy conclusion from this consistency. If the dominant failure mode in ready-to-eat foods is poor hygienic quality rather than pathogen presence, then surveillance systems built exclusively around pathogen detection are measuring the wrong thing most of the time. The study argues for incorporating hygienic quality indicators and process control metrics alongside pathogen testing into microbiological surveillance programs. Indicator organisms such as total coliforms and E. coli are cheaper to test, faster to quantify, and act as early-warning signals of the conditions under which pathogens could proliferate. A surveillance system that tracks them systematically can identify deteriorating hygiene practices before they culminate in an outbreak, rather than documenting one after the fact.

There is also a resource-allocation argument embedded in the findings. Food safety agencies in LMICs operate under chronic budget constraints and cannot inspect and test everything. The regression results provide an evidence base for risk-based prioritization: raw and highly handled ready-to-eat foods deserve the most intensive scrutiny, followed by products from rural and dispersed municipalities, with heightened vigilance during periods of systemic disruption such as pandemics. This is the essence of risk-based surveillance — directing finite laboratory and inspection capacity toward the combinations of food type, territory, and circumstance where the statistical probability of failure is highest, rather than spreading it uniformly across a landscape where most samples will pass.

The study’s setting gives its findings particular weight. The Colombian Orinoquía is a tropical, geographically dispersed region that exemplifies the surveillance challenges facing much of the low- and middle-income world: long distances, heterogeneous municipalities, informal food sectors, and limited laboratory infrastructure. Seven years of official data from such a context is a rare and valuable asset, and the analysis demonstrates what that asset can yield when subjected to rigorous statistical treatment. For food safety authorities across tropical LMICs, the message is twofold: the microbial enemy in ready-to-eat foods is most often poor hygiene rather than exotic pathogens, and the tools to find it — indicator testing, multivariable risk modeling, and geographically aware surveillance design — already exist. What remains is the institutional commitment to deploy them where the odds of failure are greatest, so that the nearly 40 percent non-compliance rate documented here becomes a baseline to be beaten rather than a permanent feature of the food supply.

Subject of Research: Factors associated with microbiological non-compliance in ready-to-eat foods based on seven years of food safety surveillance data in Colombia

Article Title: Factors associated with microbiological non-compliance in ready-to-eat foods: A seven-year analysis of official food safety surveillance data in a tropical low- and middle-income country

Article References: Montilla Rodríguez, L. M., Obando Bastidas, J. A., Rodríguez Fajardo, H. A., Mora López, A. M., Aragón, S. V. T., Rozo Cruz, D. P., Vega, E. C., Pavas Escobar, N. C., Obando Vargas, L. N., Farfán, J. P., & Gonzalez Robayo, M. S. (2026). Factors associated with microbiological non-compliance in ready-to-eat foods: A seven-year analysis of official food safety surveillance data in a tropical low- and middle-income country. PLOS Global Public Health, 6(10), e0006492. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0006492

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0006492

Keywords: food safety, ready-to-eat foods, microbiological surveillance, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Colombia, low- and middle-income countries, logistic regression, hygiene indicators, risk-based surveillance, foodborne pathogens, Orinoquía

A new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research offers a promising preharvest answer. A team led by Samiksha Bhattarai and Jitendra Patel of the University of Maryland and the USDA Agricultural Research Service tested two plant-derived antimicrobial formulations as seed treatments before sowing: a nanoemulsion of benzyl isothiocyanate, or BIT, a pungent defense compound naturally produced by cruciferous vegetables, and Sporan, a commercial botanical fungicide built from essential oils. Across five Brassicaceae microgreen species—broccoli, mustard, red cabbage, red Russian kale, and daikon radish—the treatments significantly reduced Salmonella contamination on seeds, with the BIT nanoemulsion delivering reductions of up to 2.15 log CFU per gram, roughly a hundredfold drop in bacterial numbers.

The choice of BIT was no accident. Isothiocyanates are the sharp-tasting chemicals behind the bite of mustard and horseradish, formed when glucosinolates in Brassicaceae plants are enzymatically broken down. Previous work has shown they attack bacteria on multiple fronts: disrupting outer membranes, reacting with sulfur-containing amino acids in key metabolic enzymes, interfering with hydrogen ion transfer in the respiratory chain, and ultimately impairing ATP synthesis. Electron microscopy studies cited by the authors show BIT causing bacterial cells to shrink, leak their contents, and burst, while proteins inside the cell unfold and clump into aggregates. But BIT is hydrophobic and volatile, which has hampered its practical use—problems the researchers addressed by formulating it as a nanoemulsion with droplets measuring just 12 to 34 nanometers.

That nanoscale delivery matters. Nanoemulsions stabilize tiny oil droplets with food-grade surfactants, dramatically increasing the surface area available for microbial contact and improving dispersion across irregular seed surfaces. The tiny droplets can penetrate microscopic crevices in the seed coat where Salmonella cells hide, delivering the antimicrobial directly to attached bacteria that conventional washes often miss. In laboratory disk diffusion assays, the 1% BIT nanoemulsion produced inhibition zones of roughly 12 to 14 millimeters against five Salmonella serovars, consistently outperforming the 2% Sporan emulsion, which produced zones of 9 to 10.5 millimeters. The antibiotic gentamicin, used as a positive control, produced the largest zones of all, confirming the assay worked as intended.

For the greenhouse-scale experiments, the team inoculated seeds with a cocktail of four Salmonella serovars at realistic contamination levels, then soaked them in water, BIT nanoemulsion, or Sporan before planting. The results were striking but species-dependent. Mustard seeds saw Salmonella fall from 3.28 to 1.13 log CFU per gram under BIT treatment, while red Russian kale seeds dropped from 3.37 to 1.55 log CFU per gram. Broccoli seeds responded well to both treatments, and red cabbage responded to BIT alone. Only BIT significantly reduced Salmonella on daikon radish seeds. Plain water washing, notably, achieved nothing, confirming that the reductions came from genuine antimicrobial activity rather than mechanical rinsing.

The benefits carried through cultivation. On day 14, BIT-treated red cabbage microgreens showed Salmonella levels 1.21 log units lower than on day 7, and red Russian kale microgreens declined by 1.78 log units over the same period—declines the authors attribute to the gradual release of BIT from nanoscale droplets and its continued interaction with bacteria on the plant surface. Mustard microgreens maintained the lowest overall pathogen counts throughout the study, while daikon radish carried the highest, at around 4 log CFU per gram regardless of treatment. Soil populations, by contrast, were unaffected by any treatment, likely because BIT binds readily to soil particles and volatilizes, and essential oils degrade quickly in moist, organic-rich environments. The seed treatment, in other words, protects the seed and the seedling, not the substrate.

There was a trade-off. Germination assays revealed that BIT reduced germination in several species, most dramatically in red Russian kale, where only 7.3% of seeds germinated compared with nearly 80% in water controls, and mustard, which fell to 42.7%. Sporan showed a milder version of the same pattern, sparing broccoli and red cabbage while suppressing daikon radish to 32%. Yet here the story took an unexpected turn: by harvest on day 14, fresh biomass yields were essentially unchanged across nearly all treatments and species. Broccoli, the highest-yielding crop at around 240 grams per tray, showed no difference between treatments whatsoever. The authors suggest that organic potting soil, with its pH buffering and abundant organic matter, absorbs or degrades the phytotoxic compounds, allowing seedlings to recover from early setbacks. Only daikon radish suffered a genuine yield penalty under BIT, dropping to about 97 grams per tray.

The significance of the work lies in the gap it fills. Microgreen production currently lacks any validated microbial kill step. Chlorine and hydrogen peroxide washes, the traditional tools of seed sanitation, offer limited efficacy against internalized or biofilm-protected bacteria and can damage seed viability at effective concentrations. Physical interventions such as irradiation, steam, and dry heat are often impractical for delicate seeds or incompatible with controlled-environment operations, and postharvest washing is ruled out by the fragile tissues of the seedlings themselves. Because Salmonella can migrate from the seed coat into emerging plant tissues, where surface sanitizers cannot reach it, intervening at the seed stage—before the pathogen gains entry—represents one of the few realistic points of control.

The study also positions natural antimicrobials within the broader movement toward clean-label and organic food production. Sporan is already registered for use in organic horticulture, and BIT is a compound consumers effectively already eat every time they bite into arugula or cabbage. For organic and premium microgreen operations that market chemical-free produce, botanical seed treatments offer a path to meaningful pathogen reduction without synthetic residues, even if chemical sanitizers remain cheaper for conventional growers.

The authors are careful to note that complete pathogen elimination was not achieved, and they call for future research comparing these treatments head-to-head with chemical sanitizers on cost and efficacy, and for multi-hurdle approaches that combine seed treatments with other interventions. Still, the findings mark a meaningful step: a naturally derived compound, delivered at nanoscale, cutting Salmonella on seeds and keeping it lower on edible tissues throughout the growing cycle, all without sacrificing the harvest. In an industry where a single contaminated batch can sicken consumers and shutter a business, even a hundredfold reduction at the seed stage is a powerful new tool for one of fresh produce’s most safety-challenged niches.

Subject of Research: Preharvest natural antimicrobial seed treatments for controlling Salmonella enterica in microgreen production

Article Title: Preharvest seed treatment with natural antimicrobial formulations to control Salmonella enterica in microgreens

Article References: Bhattarai, S., Subedi, U., Pradhan, A. K., & Patel, J. (2026). Preharvest seed treatment with natural antimicrobial formulations to control Salmonella enterica in microgreens. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, Article 103351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2026.103351

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1016/j.jafr.2026.103351

Keywords: microgreens, Salmonella enterica, benzyl isothiocyanate, nanoemulsion, seed treatment, food safety, Brassicaceae, essential oils, Sporan, preharvest intervention, controlled-environment agriculture, foodborne pathogens

The global burden of foodborne disease is staggering and persistent. Pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter, and Vibrio have been implicated in outbreaks across the globe, lurking in uncooked and undercooked poultry, pork, beef, fish, eggs, dairy products, fresh vegetables, fruits, and even dried goods like cereals, spices, and chocolates. Risk factors ranging from inadequate personal hygiene among food handlers to exposure of foods to insects in cooking environments continue to drive the prevalence of these illnesses. Conventional laboratory detection methods, while accurate, often demand expensive equipment, trained personnel, and days of waiting, a timeline that can allow contaminated products to reach consumers before anyone realizes there is a problem. The researchers behind the new work argue that rapid detection strategies deployed at the point of consumption are an essential complement to existing surveillance systems.

The core of the innovation lies in how the nanoparticles themselves are made. Rather than relying on chemical or physical synthesis routes that can be costly and environmentally taxing, the team harnessed Bacillus subtilis, a bacterium with demonstrated iron-reducing potential identified in the group’s earlier experiments. To produce iron oxide nanoparticles, the researchers inoculated sterile nutrient broth with the isolate, incubated it at 37 degrees Celsius for 48 hours, and mixed the recovered culture supernatant with a cocktail of iron salts. Over 120 hours of static incubation at room temperature, the microbial machinery reduced the metal precursors into nanoparticles. For gold, the team dispersed wet B. subtilis biomass directly into a chloroauric acid solution and agitated it in the dark for 72 hours, letting cellular enzymes, likely including NADH-dependent reductase and nitrate reductase, drive the bio-reduction.

Characterization confirmed that both particle types had formed as intended. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy showed the iron oxide nanoparticles absorbing at 261 nanometers, squarely within the expected 250 to 350 nanometer range for Fe3O4, while the gold nanoparticles displayed the characteristic surface plasmon resonance peak at 548 nanometers. Scanning electron microscopy revealed mean particle sizes of 72 nanometers for the iron oxide particles and 118 nanometers for the gold, with FTIR analysis detecting functional groups such as alcohol hydroxyl stretches, amine bends, and carbon-carbon skeletal vibrations that point to the microbial metabolites capping the particles. X-ray diffraction patterns matched the standard reference files for both magnetite and metallic gold, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirmed the elemental signatures, with iron accounting for 49.32 percent of the iron oxide particles and gold 33.31 percent of the gold nanoparticles.

Assembling the two particle types into a single functional nanocomposite required careful chemistry. The iron oxide nanoparticles were first capped with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or EDTA, a ligand that prevents aggregation and stabilizes the notoriously difficult-to-manage magnetic particles. The gold nanoparticles were separately coated with one of two polymers: polyethyleneimine, known as PEI, or polyethylene glycol 6000, known as PEG. Both polymers are rich in amine groups that carry positive charges, while the EDTA-capped iron oxide surfaces are negatively charged. When the two suspensions were combined and gently heated, electrostatic attraction drove the particles to self-assemble into iron oxide-gold nanocomposites. EDX analysis revealed a meaningful difference between the two versions: the PEI-linked composites contained 75.56 percent elemental gold but only 7.40 percent iron, while the PEG-linked versions held 61.40 percent gold and 20.00 percent iron, suggesting the polymer choice shapes how the components integrate.

With the nanocomposites in hand, the researchers turned them into biosensors by functionalizing them with three different chromogens, compounds that change color under specific biochemical conditions. The candidates were 2-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside, or 2-NPGP; urea; and 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride, or TTC, a well-known redox indicator. Each chromogen was attached independently to both the PEI-linked and PEG-linked nanocomposites, creating a panel of candidate sensors that were then tested against three enteric bacteria isolated from livestock: the Gram-negative Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli, and the Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. Bacterial cultures were standardized to concentrations spanning from 10 to 100 million colony-forming units per milliliter, and the mixtures were monitored visually and by spectrophotometry at 540 nanometers.

The results separated the candidates sharply. The 2-NPGP-functionalized nanocomposites linked by PEI produced a gradual color change from colorless to pale only with Staphylococcus aureus, reaching a detection limit of 10,000 CFU per milliliter, a sensitivity the researchers attribute to the catalytic action of beta-D-galactosidase produced by that organism. The urea-functionalized versions, whether linked by PEI or PEG, showed no color change with any of the three pathogens, a result that surprised the team given earlier reports of urea-based detection. The key difference, they suggest, is that previous studies incorporated the enzyme urease directly into their detection systems, whereas this setup relied on enzymes naturally secreted by the bacteria, which may not have been sufficient to drive the reaction. The PEG-linked 2-NPGP composites likewise failed to respond to any pathogen.

The standout performer was the TTC-functionalized nanocomposite linked by PEI. Within two hours of exposure, Salmonella typhi triggered a progression from colorless to light pink and ultimately to an intense red by the 24-hour mark. Escherichia coli produced a light pink color at six hours, indicating a slower enzymatic reaction, while Staphylococcus aureus produced no visible change at all. The detection limit for this configuration was 100 million CFU per milliliter. Critically, control experiments using TTC alone without the nanocomposite showed no color change, demonstrating that the PEI-linked iron oxide-gold structure significantly enhances the chromogenic properties of TTC. The researchers propose a mechanism centered on dehydrogenase enzymes in viable bacterial cells: hydrogen ions released from the pathogens, complemented by hydrogen ions from PEI, interact with the synthetic ion receptor of TTC and induce the color change. Differences in how Salmonella and E. coli regulate homologous genes governing lipopolysaccharide modifications and proton release may explain why the E. coli response lagged behind.

Why did PEI succeed where PEG failed? The researchers point to PEI’s low molecular weight, which generates high cationic charge density, making it more compatible and specific with TTC, itself a cationic salt. As a positively charged compound, TTC can initiate electrostatic interactions with the anionic plasma membranes of viable Salmonella and E. coli cells, and the PEI scaffold appears to facilitate that encounter. PEG-linked composites, by contrast, showed no response to any pathogen, possibly because of an absence of available hydrogen ions or repelling interactions from unidentified ions associated with the polymer. The selectivity is itself an asset: a sensor that ignores Staphylococcus aureus while flagging the two Gram-negative enteric pathogens could, with further development, help distinguish between different contamination scenarios in food testing.

The team is candid about the work’s limitations. Real-time tests on actual food samples were not conducted, and the detection limit of the TTC sensor, while functional, is higher than some competing approaches. Translating the platform from standardized laboratory cultures to the messy matrix of real food will require further validation and optimization. Still, the study establishes a foundation for what the authors describe as a simple, selective, sensitive, and cost-effective bio-receptor for timely detection of foodborne pathogens, particularly Salmonella typhi. Compared with chemical and physical nanoparticle synthesis methods used in most biomedical sensing research, the eco-friendly microbial route offers a sustainability advantage, and the visual readout, requiring no complex setup, positions the technology for point-of-care or even consumer-facing applications. If subsequent studies confirm its performance on real food matrices, bacteria-grown nanocomposites that blush red in the presence of typhoid-causing contamination could become a practical first-line indicator for improving food safety and public health.

Subject of Research: Biosynthesized iron oxide-gold nanocomposite biosensors for colorimetric detection of enteric foodborne bacterial pathogens

Article Title: Colorimetric-based detection of enteric bacterial pathogens using chromogens-functionalized iron oxide-gold nanocomposites biosynthesized by Bacillus subtilis

Article References: Daramola, O. B., Torimiro, N., & George, R. C. (2025). Colorimetric-based detection of enteric bacterial pathogens using chromogens-functionalized iron oxide-gold nanocomposites biosynthesized by Bacillus subtilis. Discover Biotechnology, 2(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44340-025-00008-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44340-025-00008-z

Keywords: colorimetric detection, foodborne pathogens, iron oxide-gold nanocomposites, Bacillus subtilis, biosynthesis, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, triphenyl tetrazolium chloride, polyethyleneimine, nanoparticles, food safety, biosensors

The research team set out to answer a question that has practical consequences for the pet food industry: how much pressure is enough to kill dangerous microbes, and how much is too much before the meat itself begins to suffer? They treated raw beef loin, a primary ingredient in raw pet food formulations, at pressures of 0.1, 100, 300, and 500 megapascals for holding times of 5 to 15 minutes, then tracked both microbial survival and a battery of physicochemical properties over two weeks of refrigerated storage. Five pathogens were inoculated onto the meat: Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus. The samples were vacuum-packed and processed within two hours of inoculation to minimize any changes in microbial populations before treatment.

The microbial results followed a clear pressure-time hierarchy. At 100 megapascals, the inactivation effect was limited, consistent with reversible cellular responses rather than irreversible damage; membranes may become permeabilized without sufficient disruption of intracellular structures, allowing microorganisms to recover. As pressure increased, structural disruption of cell membranes and protein denaturation progressed, leading to irreversible cellular damage. The most striking result came at 500 megapascals for 15 minutes, where Salmonella Typhimurium was reduced to below the detection limit of one log colony-forming unit per gram and was never re-detected during the entire two-week storage period. The other pathogens were not completely eliminated, but they showed substantial reductions with limited regrowth.

The differential survival of the pathogens tells a fascinating story about cell architecture. Gram-positive bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus possess thicker peptidoglycan layers than their gram-negative counterparts, conferring greater pressure resistance. Among all the organisms tested, Staphylococcus aureus proved the toughest, and the authors attribute this to a suite of defensive features: the antioxidant pigment staphyloxanthin, a high content of branched-chain fatty acids in the cell membrane, extensive secondary cross-linking of peptidoglycan, and teichoic acids that stabilize the cell wall against deformation. Immediately after the 500-megapascal, 15-minute treatment, E. coli, Listeria, Staphylococcus, and Bacillus were reduced by 77.47, 77.58, 48.77, and 71.83 percent respectively compared with the control, and over the storage period the reductions reached 59.46, 68.35, 53.39, and 92.08 percent.

Bacillus cereus added another layer of complexity because of its spore-forming ability. Rather than being killed directly, pressures above 50 megapascals stimulate germinant receptors and SpoVA channels within the spores, triggering the release of calcium and calcium-dipicolinic acid and raising the water content of the spore core. Once germinated, the spores convert into vegetative cells, losing their pressure resistance and becoming more susceptible to oxidative stress and DNA damage. This supports what the authors describe as a germination-inactivation sequence rather than direct spore lethality, a nuance that matters greatly for shelf-stable product design.

On the quality side, the picture was more mixed. Proximate composition, meaning moisture, protein, fat, and ash content, remained unchanged across all treatments, largely because vacuum packaging prevented drip loss, the main route by which pressure treatment can alter bulk nutritional composition. pH was similarly stable throughout processing and storage, which the researchers link to the suppression of microbial metabolism and endogenous enzymatic activity, the two main drivers of postmortem biochemical change. However, higher pressures and longer holding times increased lightness, yellowness, shear force, water-holding capacity, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, a marker of lipid oxidation, while redness declined. The 500-megapascal, 15-minute treatment raised lightness by 36.95 percent compared with the control, producing a visibly paler product.

One of the most intriguing findings is a paradox in texture. The highest pressure-time combination produced both the greatest water-holding capacity and the highest shear force, meaning the meat held more water yet became tougher. The authors explain this through pressure-induced protein aggregation: dissociated myofibrillar proteins interact through exposed sulfhydryl groups and hydrophobic residues, forming gel-like networks that immobilize water within a mechanically rigid matrix. Water retention, in other words, does not equal tenderness under high pressure. Meanwhile, color changes were governed by non-linear interactions between structural light scattering and myoglobin redox chemistry; at an intermediate 300 megapascals, metmyoglobin-reducing enzymes remain active enough to partially preserve redness, whereas 500 megapascals inactivates those enzymatic defenses.

Oxidation and spoilage chemistry also responded to pressure in opposing directions. Lipid oxidation, measured as TBARS, increased with both pressure intensity and storage time, driven by the release of non-heme iron when myoglobin’s porphyrin structure is destroyed; that iron reacts with hydrogen peroxide to generate hydroxyl radicals that attack lipids. Volatile basic nitrogen, an indicator of protein deterioration, moved the opposite way, falling significantly at 500 megapascals because high pressure suppresses both the microbes and the proteolytic enzymes, including calpains and cathepsins, that would otherwise degrade muscle proteins. Yet even here, storage mattered: VBN values climbed in all groups by week two, suggesting residual enzymatic activity persists after treatment.

The study’s practical conclusion is that processing intensity must be optimized rather than maximized. The 500-megapascal, 15-minute condition delivered the strongest antimicrobial effect but also the worst quality outcomes, including tougher texture, more lipid oxidation, and color deterioration. Moderate conditions around 300 megapascals for 15 minutes achieved substantial microbial reduction while better preserving the attributes that determine palatability, which matters because companion animals are sensitive to texture and appearance as well as to microbial hazards. The authors acknowledge limitations, notably the absence of sensory evaluation, and propose that future work employ electronic nose and tongue instruments and gas chromatography-based volatile analysis, along with digestibility trials, to establish biologically relevant processing windows. For an industry racing to make raw diets safe without making them sterile and unappetizing, this study provides exactly the kind of pressure-time framework needed to find that balance.

Subject of Research: Effects of high-pressure processing on microbial safety and physicochemical quality of raw beef loin for pet food

Article Title: Analyses of the microbial safety and physicochemical characteristics of beef loin treated with high-pressure

Article References: Baek, U.-B., & Kim, H.-Y. (2026). Analyses of the microbial safety and physicochemical characteristics of beef loin treated with high-pressure. Food Science of Animal Resources, 46(1), Article 74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44463-026-00081-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44463-026-00081-w

Keywords: high-pressure processing, raw pet food, beef loin, foodborne pathogens, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, microbial inactivation, lipid oxidation, meat quality, non-thermal sterilization, food safety

The research, published in the journal MicrobiologyOpen, focused on five strains with established probiotic credentials: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum NBRC 3070, Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356, Lacticaseibacillus casei ATCC 393, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG ATCC 53103, and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis ATCC 27673. These are not obscure laboratory curiosities. They are workhorse organisms used in food fermentation and probiotic formulations worldwide, which means that any antimicrobial compounds they produce could, in principle, be translated into industrial biopreservation strategies with relative speed. The team pitted both the live bacteria and their cell-free metabolites against a panel of seven indicator pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella sonnei, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, and Bacillus cereus, organisms routinely implicated in contamination of meat, dairy, water, and ready-to-eat foods.

The results were striking. When whole bacterial cultures of the lactic acid bacteria were tested using agar well diffusion, inhibition zones ranged from roughly 15 to 23 millimeters, placing most of the target pathogens in the very sensitive to extremely sensitive categories. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum NBRC 3070 emerged as a standout performer, producing the largest average inhibition zones, while E. coli ATCC 25922 proved the most vulnerable target overall, with a mean inhibition zone exceeding 21 millimeters across all five producer strains. Shigella sonnei, by contrast, showed the greatest resilience, a reminder that even nature’s antimicrobials face pathogen-specific limits.

Crucially, the antimicrobial activity survived the removal of the living cells. Cell-free supernatants, the liquid fraction left after the bacteria are spun away, still inhibited pathogen growth by 84 to 89 percent in broth microdilution assays against E. coli, Salmonella, and S. aureus, particularly when derived from L. plantarum and L. casei. This matters because it demonstrates that the inhibitory power resides in secreted metabolites, a class of compounds often called postbiotics, rather than in any competitive behavior of the living microbes. For food manufacturers, that opens the door to using purified or concentrated extracts as shelf-life extenders without introducing live cultures into products where they might alter taste or texture.

The researchers then dissected what exactly was doing the killing. Lactic acid bacteria deploy a layered chemical arsenal: organic acids such as lactic and acetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and proteinaceous toxins known as bacteriocins and bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances, or BLIS. By neutralizing the supernatants to remove the effects of acids and peroxide, then lyophilizing them into a stable powder, the team isolated the contribution of the BLIS fraction. Four of the five strains retained measurable activity after this treatment, with inhibition zones between 10 and 15.8 millimeters, confirming genuine BLIS production. Notably, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis lost its activity entirely once acids were neutralized, suggesting its antimicrobial punch comes primarily from pH effects rather than stable protein toxins.

Enzyme digestion experiments sealed the case for the proteinaceous nature of the compounds. Treating the lyophilized supernatants with trypsin, pepsin, and papain significantly reduced antimicrobial activity, with reductions ranging from about 1.3 to 11 percent. Pepsin inflicted the heaviest damage, hinting that the active peptides contain cleavage sites vulnerable to that particular enzyme. This enzyme sensitivity is a hallmark of bacteriocin-like substances and distinguishes them from non-protein antimicrobials. It also carries a safety implication: proteinaceous compounds are typically digested in the human gut, reducing the risk that they would disrupt beneficial microbiota or drive resistance the way broad-spectrum synthetic antibiotics can.

Quantification revealed just how potent these substances can be. Using arbitrary units and minimum inhibitory concentrations, the team found activity ranging from 133 to 1280 AU/mL across the target pathogens. L. rhamnosus GG delivered the single strongest result, achieving 1280 AU/mL against Salmonella Typhimurium with a remarkably low MIC of 1.54 mg/mL. Salmonella proved broadly susceptible across all five strains, an encouraging sign given the persistent burden of salmonellosis worldwide. Against E. coli, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa, MIC values were higher, between 6.26 and 12.5 mg/mL for most strains, indicating moderate but still meaningful activity. The study also established a direct correlation between arbitrary units and MIC values, a methodological bridge that is rarely quantified and should make future comparisons between laboratories far more rigorous.

Beyond their chemical weapons, the strains passed several key probiotic fitness tests. All five displayed strong cell surface hydrophobicity above 50 percent, with three strains reaching approximately 65 percent, a trait associated with the ability to adhere to intestinal surfaces. Autoaggregation climbed steadily over time, with L. rhamnosus GG, L. casei, and B. animalis subsp. lactis all exceeding 85 percent after 24 hours. The bacteria also coaggregated with pathogens, clumping with S. aureus and E. coli at rates up to roughly 38 percent, a mechanism that can physically block pathogens from colonizing surfaces. Statistical analysis confirmed significant positive correlations between hydrophobicity, autoaggregation, and coaggregation, suggesting these adhesion traits work in concert. On the safety side, most strains were sensitive to clinically important antibiotics such as azithromycin, tetracycline, and penicillin, though all showed intrinsic resistance to aminoglycosides and norfloxacin, a pattern considered typical and non-transferable in lactic acid bacteria. One caveat stands out: L. plantarum NBRC 3070 was resistant to every antibiotic tested, a finding the authors flag as warranting deeper genetic investigation before any food application.

Perhaps the most practically valuable insight concerns timing and temperature. The team tracked antimicrobial production over 48 hours of anaerobic growth at both 30 and 37 degrees Celsius. Activity appeared as early as four hours into growth, but peak production, exceeding 90 percent inhibition of the indicator organism, arrived during the stationary phase: at 36 hours when cultures were held at 30 degrees, and at 24 hours at 37 degrees. Warmer temperatures accelerated growth and acidification but did not proportionally boost antimicrobial yield, and temperature alone had no significant effect on production levels. Instead, the interplay of time, temperature, and strain identity governed the output, with falling pH and accumulating biomass acting as triggers for biosynthesis. For industrial fermenters, this defines a precise harvest window, after which activity gradually declines, likely due to proteolytic degradation of the active compounds.

The implications extend well beyond the laboratory bench. With the World Health Organization identifying antimicrobial resistance as one of the top global public health threats, and with chemical preservatives facing growing consumer skepticism, bacteriocin-based biopreservation occupies a rare sweet spot: effective, natural, and generally regarded as safe. Nisin, a bacteriocin from a related lactic acid bacterium, has already been licensed as a food additive for decades, proving the commercial pathway exists. What this study adds is a rigorous, comparative evaluation of five industry-relevant strains, complete with optimized production conditions, quantified potency, and enzyme-confirmed mechanisms. The authors are candid about the limitations: the work was conducted entirely in vitro, the molecular structures of the BLIS remain uncharacterized, and the resistance profile of L. plantarum needs clarification. Still, the convergence of strong antimicrobial activity, favorable surface properties, and acceptable antibiotic susceptibility profiles positions these five strains, and especially L. plantarum and L. rhamnosus GG, as leading candidates for the next generation of natural food preservatives. In the escalating contest between superbugs and the food supply, the humble yogurt bacterium may prove to be an unlikely but formidable ally.

Subject of Research: Probiotic lactic acid bacteria and their antimicrobial substances against foodborne pathogens

Article Title: Evaluation of Probiotic Properties and Antimicrobial Substances Produced by Five Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Foodborne and Spoilage Pathogens

Article References: Rahman, M. M., Sazili, A. Q., Ahmad, S. A., Khalil, K. A., Ismail‐Fitry, M. R., & Sarker, M. S. K. (2026). Evaluation of Probiotic Properties and Antimicrobial Substances Produced by Five Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Foodborne and Spoilage Pathogens. MicrobiologyOpen, 15(5), Article e70052. https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.70052

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.70052

Keywords: lactic acid bacteria, probiotics, bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances, foodborne pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, biopreservation, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, postbiotics, food safety, minimum inhibitory concentration, cell surface hydrophobicity

The research team focused on Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara National Regional State, a city of roughly 565 kilometres from Addis Ababa that sits near Lake Tana and the headwaters of the Blue Nile. The city is a major tourist destination, perched on a plateau between 1,810 and 1,850 metres above sea level, with temperatures ranging from 10 to 38 degrees Celsius. Its meat trade operates through one municipal abattoir and approximately 91 licensed butcher houses, small privately owned establishments embedded in residential neighbourhoods, local markets, and busy streets. These shops typically display carcasses openly at ambient temperature so that customers and passers-by can inspect the meat, and cutting is performed manually with knives on wooden or plastic chopping blocks. Many also serve raw and cooked dishes on site, including kurt, thinly sliced raw beef eaten with hot pepper and mustard, and kitfo, minced raw meat blended with a chili-based spice mix and herb-infused clarified butter. These dishes, beloved across much of highland Ethiopia, mean that meat is frequently consumed without the thermal kill step that cooking provides, leaving any contamination intact when it reaches the diner’s plate.

Using Yamane’s sample size formula, the researchers randomly selected 74 of the city’s 91 licensed butcher houses, drawing their sampling frame from the Bahir Dar City Administration Municipal Office. Workers answered pre-tested structured questionnaires administered through interviews, and inspectors completed observation checklists during site visits. Samples of ready-to-eat raw meat, chopped with the knives normally used in the shops, were collected in sterile plastic bags and transported in ice boxes to the Amhara Public Health Institute Laboratory. In the laboratory, 25 grams of each minced sample were homogenized with 225 millilitres of buffered peptone water in a Stomacher 400 homogenizer, then plated onto Compact Dry EC medium, a chromogenic substrate on which E. coli forms distinctive blue to blue-purple colonies while other coliforms appear red or pink. Presumptive E. coli colonies were sub-cultured onto Sorbitol MacConkey agar, where the O157 serotype betrays itself by failing to ferment sorbitol, producing pale colonies rather than the pink colonies of ordinary strains. Confirmation proceeded through classical biochemical profiling, including triple sugar iron agar reactions, indole production, the methyl red test, and negative Voges-Proskauer and citrate results.

The headline finding was stark: 21 of the 74 samples, or 28.4 percent, were presumptively identified as E. coli O157:H7. This prevalence towers over figures reported elsewhere in Ethiopia, including 4.2 percent in Modjo and Bishoftu, 14.6 percent in Addis Ababa, 2 percent in Hawassa, and 4.5 percent in both central Ethiopia and Jimma town. It sits, however, below rates recorded in Nigeria at 53 percent, Bangladesh at 52.4 percent, and Argentina at 36.1 percent. The authors attribute the elevated Bahir Dar figure primarily to poor hygienic practice along the meat production chain, from slaughtering and transportation through to butcher-house handling, and note that differences in detection methods, sample sizes, and sampling approaches complicate direct comparisons between studies. Notably, the study did not use immunomagnetic separation, a technique that can improve detection sensitivity, meaning the true burden could conceivably be even higher.

What makes E. coli O157:H7 so feared is its arsenal of virulence factors, and the molecular portion of the study confirmed that the Bahir Dar isolates were not benign look-alikes. The pathogen’s disease-causing power rests on Shiga toxins 1 and 2, encoded by the stx1 and stx2 genes, on intimin, an attachment protein encoded by eaeA, and on enterohaemolysin, encoded by hlyA. In humans, infection can progress from watery diarrhoea to haemorrhagic colitis and, in the most severe cases, haemolytic uraemic syndrome, a life-threatening kidney condition. Crucially, the infectious dose of O157:H7 is extraordinarily low, meaning even a small amount of contaminated meat can cause illness. Because primers for some targets were unavailable, the team screened all 21 isolates by polymerase chain reaction for only two virulence markers, stx1 and eaeA. DNA was extracted using a boiling method, with colonies suspended in sterile distilled water, heated at 100 degrees Celsius for ten minutes, and centrifuged at 15,000 revolutions per minute; the supernatant then served as template. Amplification products were separated on 1.5 percent agarose gels stained with ethidium bromide and visualized under ultraviolet light, with sterile water and a known O157:H7 isolate serving as negative and positive controls.

Ten of the 21 isolates, or 47.6 percent, carried at least one of the two virulence genes investigated. Seven isolates carried both stx1 and eaeA, while three carried stx1 alone. The stx1 detection rate of 100 percent among gene-positive isolates exceeded figures reported from Saudi Arabia, where 45.45 percent of isolates carried the gene, and from India, where stx1 was found in 83.64 percent of beef isolates but eaeA in only 7.27 percent. The authors caution that the eleven isolates lacking these two genes cannot be declared harmless, since stx2 and hlyA were never assessed. Even so, the finding that roughly half of the contaminated retail meat samples harboured bacteria equipped with Shiga toxin and intimin genes establishes raw beef in Bahir Dar as a plausible vehicle for severe human infection, and a genuine public health concern rather than a merely theoretical one.

Perhaps the most actionable results came from the analysis of human behaviour. Logistic regression, with variables entering the multivariable model at a significance threshold of p less than 0.25, revealed two practices with strong statistical associations with contamination. Butchers who had received training in safe food handling had 84 percent lower odds of E. coli O157:H7 contamination in their meat than untrained colleagues, an adjusted odds ratio of 0.16 with a p-value of 0.028. Yet only 16.2 percent of the 74 workers had ever received such training, even though 81.1 percent had undergone health-status checks during employment. Conversely, workers who collected money from customers while cutting meat had 3.7 times higher odds of contamination than those who delegated cash handling to a separate collector, an adjusted odds ratio of 3.7 with a p-value of 0.047. At the time of the inspectors’ visits, 64.9 percent of workers were handling money and meat simultaneously, a practice higher than the 47.3 percent reported in a previous study. Banknotes, the authors note, are well-documented transmission media for microorganisms, and the hazard is acute when meat and money pass through the same unwashed hands.

Other observed habits fell short of international standards. Some 74.3 percent of workers wore jewellery such as rings and watches while processing meat, a figure consistent with the 78.9 percent reported in Mekele city, and only 32.4 percent used head covers and mouth masks. These practices run counter to the recommendations of the joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization Codex Alimentarius Commission and to the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, which advises that protective clothing such as gowns and hair covers be worn at all times when meat is handled. The workforce itself was overwhelmingly male, at 97.2 percent, and young, with 76 percent aged between 18 and 30, while 60 percent had more than three years of experience. Educational attainment ranged from no formal schooling for 4 percent of respondents to diplomas or higher for 9.4 percent, with just over half having completed only primary school.

On antimicrobial susceptibility, the news was comparatively encouraging. All 21 isolates were fully susceptible to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, and kanamycin, while 86 percent were susceptible to ceftriaxone and 81 percent to chloramphenicol. Resistance was concentrated in older, widely used drugs: amoxicillin showed the highest resistance at 33.3 percent, followed by chloramphenicol at 28.6 percent, with six isolates resistant to two drugs and none to more than two. The authors attribute this pattern to inappropriate or excessive antibiotic use for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes in Ethiopian veterinary and human medicine, and warn that multidrug resistance, once established, severely hampers treatment of infections in both animals and people. The study’s limitations are acknowledged candidly: resources did not permit latex agglutination confirmation, serotyping, or sequencing, and reagent shortages prevented testing for stx2, hlyA, and resistance genes. Samples were also collected during 2019 and 2020, so the picture reflects that period. Nevertheless, the authors argue the findings provide a valuable baseline for Bahir Dar and a clear mandate: food safety training for butcher house owners and workers, routine surveillance, and further studies of additional virulence and resistance genes. In a city where raw beef is served as a delicacy, the difference between a safe meal and a dangerous one may come down to whether the person behind the counter has been trained, and whether they put down the knife before picking up the cash.

Subject of Research: Prevalence, virulence genes, antimicrobial susceptibility, and hygiene risk factors of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in raw retail meat in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

Article Title: Prevalence, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, and Hygienic Practices of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Raw Meat, Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

Article References: Asefa, W., Tassew, H., Bialfew, T., Gelaye, E., & Azene, B. T. (2026). Prevalence, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, and Hygienic Practices of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Raw Meat, Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia. Veterinary Medicine and Science, 12(5), Article e71246. https://doi.org/10.1002/vms3.71246

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/vms3.71246

Keywords: Escherichia coli O157:H7, foodborne pathogens, raw meat, food safety, Ethiopia, Bahir Dar, Shiga toxin, virulence genes, antimicrobial resistance, butcher houses, hygiene practices, public health

The motivation behind the work stems from an underappreciated vulnerability in kimchi production. Kimchi seasoning, the potent blend of garlic, ginger, chili pepper, scallions and other aromatics that gives the dish its signature bite, is prepared from raw agricultural ingredients that can harbor contaminating microorganisms. Unlike the finished, fully fermented product, seasoning mixtures are not yet dominated by the protective lactic acid bacteria that suppress competitors during fermentation. If pathogenic bacteria hitch a ride on contaminated seasoning ingredients, they can be transmitted into the fermenting cabbage batch, where their fate depends on a tug-of-war between harsh acidity and favorable storage temperatures. Previous surveys of kimchi and its ingredients have documented microbiological contamination, and outbreaks elsewhere have linked Yersinia to ready-to-eat salads and fresh produce, underscoring that raw plant materials can serve as vehicles for human pathogens.

Yersinia enterocolitica is a psychrotrophic bacterium, meaning it grows happily at refrigeration temperatures, an unsettling trait for a food industry that relies on cold storage as its primary safety net. Infection with the bacterium, known as yersiniosis, typically produces abdominal pain, diarrhea and fever, and cases are frequently reported across Europe and other regions in zoonoses monitoring. Because the organism thrives in the cold, simply chilling kimchi seasoning is not enough to guarantee safety, and producers need to know exactly how fast the pathogen declines, under what combinations of temperature, time and acidity, and whether those declines follow predictable mathematical patterns. That is precisely the knowledge gap the Korean team set out to fill with quantitative modeling rather than one-off experiments.

To capture the combined effects of multiple environmental factors, the researchers turned to response surface methodology, a statistical framework widely used in engineering and food science for optimizing and predicting processes. At the heart of their experimental design was a central composite design, an arrangement of experimental runs placed systematically across a multidimensional factor space that allows a second-order polynomial equation to be fitted to the observed responses. In practical terms, the team varied storage temperature and storage time while holding the initial pH of the seasoning at two distinct levels, pH 4.5 and pH 5.5, and measured how many Y. enterocolitica cells survived in each condition. The fitted equations then generate a response surface, essentially a topographic map of inactivation, that lets modelers read off expected pathogen reduction for any combination of variables within the tested range, including combinations never directly measured in the laboratory.

The statistical backbone of the study came from analysis of variance, which confirmed that every factor built into the models exerted a statistically significant influence on Y. enterocolitica survival. Storage temperature and storage time emerged as the most powerful drivers of inactivation, dominating the behavior of the pathogen across the experimental space. Critically, the analysis also revealed a significant interaction between temperature and time, meaning the effect of one factor depended on the level of the other; cold storage over long durations does not simply add up in a straightforward way, and the models capture that non-additivity. The pH term was likewise significant, but its contribution turned out to be far more interesting than a simple main effect, because acidity did not merely speed up or slow down killing uniformly. Instead, it fundamentally changed the shape of the survival curve.

That shape difference is the conceptual heart of the study. At the milder pH 5.5 condition, inactivation followed relatively linear reduction kinetics, the kind of steady, predictable decline that classical first-order models describe well. At the harsher pH 4.5, however, the survival data took on a distinctly non-linear character that the team characterized as Weibull-type behavior, named after the flexible probability distribution commonly used to describe microbial death curves that bend. Weibull models can represent curvilinear survival patterns, including curves with shoulders or tails, and their shape parameter carries biological meaning: deviations from a straight line are often interpreted as evidence that cells in a population differ in their resistance, or that the environment itself shifts the stress landscape as cells accumulate damage. In this case, the non-linear response under strongly acidic conditions pointed toward enhanced microbial stress responses, a phenomenon in which bacteria exposed to sublethal acid stress activate protective machinery, including acid resistance systems known from related pathogens, that can make the population harder to kill in ways a straight-line model would miss.

For food microbiologists, the practical consequence is that a single generic inactivation equation cannot be safely applied across kimchi seasoning batches whose acidity varies naturally. Kimchi ingredients bring their own buffering capacity and pH to the mixture, and fermentation progresses differently depending on recipe, temperature and microbial community, so the initial pH of the seasoning matrix can plausibly sit anywhere near the two levels the team tested. By modeling pH as an explicit variable, the researchers have produced a framework in which a producer or risk assessor can select the equations appropriate to their product’s acidity and obtain defensible predictions of pathogen decline. The distinction between linear and Weibull-type kinetics also matters for regulatory calculations, because assuming linear death when the true curve flattens out could dramatically overestimate the safety margin of a given storage regime.

The study sits within the broader and rapidly growing field of predictive microbiology, which aims to convert empirical observations of microbial behavior into mathematical models capable of forecasting food safety outcomes. Decades of work in this discipline have established that microbial responses to temperature, pH, water activity and other hurdles can be modeled hierarchically, with primary models describing the shape of growth or death curves and secondary models describing how those shapes change with environmental conditions. The kimchi seasoning models exemplify this approach applied to a food matrix and pathogen combination that had received little quantitative attention. The authors note that quantitative information about Y. enterocolitica behavior during kimchi seasoning storage has been limited, and their response surface models are intended to close that gap by providing usable predictions for contamination risk assessment and the design of storage strategies.

The implications ripple outward to both industry and consumers. For manufacturers of kimchi and related minimally processed vegetable products, the models offer a way to evaluate whether a proposed cold-chain temperature, distribution timeline and recipe acidity collectively deliver an adequate pathogen reduction, before a contaminated batch ever reaches the market. For regulators and risk assessors, they supply the kind of parameterized equations needed for quantitative microbial risk assessment, the formal discipline of estimating illness risk from farm to fork. And for the global community of kimchi lovers, the research quietly reinforces a lesson that food safety scientists have long emphasized: fermentation and refrigeration are powerful tools, but their effectiveness against specific pathogens depends on measurable variables that can now be calculated rather than guessed. As predictive microbiology matures, the days of treating traditional fermented foods as too complex to model are drawing to a close.

The work, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea through the World Institute of Kimchi, also highlights a larger trend in food safety science: the integration of designed experiments, statistical optimization and mathematical modeling into everyday decision-making for traditional foods. What began as a classically empirical craft, passed down through generations of Korean home cooks, is increasingly described in the language of polynomial equations, Weibull parameters and response surfaces. The Korean team’s demonstration that acidity reshapes the very kinetics of pathogen death in kimchi seasoning is a vivid example of how modern quantitative tools can illuminate even the most ancient of foods, and it offers a template that other producers of fermented and minimally processed vegetables around the world are likely to follow as they confront the same cold-loving pathogens in their own products.

Subject of Research: Predictive modeling of Yersinia enterocolitica inactivation in kimchi seasoning under varying pH and storage conditions

Article Title: Predictive modeling of Yersinia enterocolitica reduction in kimchi seasoning as affected by the initial pH, using response surface methodology

Article References: Song, H., Kim, S.-J., Ha, S., Song, J., & Ha, J.-H. (2026). Predictive modeling of Yersinia enterocolitica reduction in kimchi seasoning as affected by the initial pH, using response surface methodology. Food Science and Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-026-02316-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10068-026-02316-4

Keywords: Yersinia enterocolitica, kimchi seasoning, predictive microbiology, response surface methodology, food safety, microbial inactivation kinetics, Weibull model, central composite design, pH, cold storage, foodborne pathogens, fermented foods

The review, authored by Rina Yu, Sin-Young Park, Prabhathma Yasasvi Rathnayake, and colleagues at Chungnam National University, Kongju National University, and the Korea Institute of Materials Science, systematically compares how different ultrasound systems and thermal conditions inactivate microbes in milk and milk-derived drinks. The authors frame their analysis around a simple but consequential observation: the antimicrobial power of ultrasound varies enormously depending on the equipment configuration, the processing parameters, and, crucially, how much heat is generated or deliberately added during treatment. By sorting the literature into three processing modes, cavitation-driven non-thermal ultrasound, ultrasound with natural temperature rise, and thermally assisted ultrasonic treatment, the review provides one of the clearest pictures yet of where sound-based pasteurization stands on the path from laboratory bench to dairy plant floor.

The physics behind ultrasonic pasteurization is striking. A transducer converts electrical energy into acoustic energy, sending longitudinal pressure waves through the liquid. These waves create alternating regions of compression and rarefaction, and in the rarefaction phase the liquid is literally torn apart, forming microscopic bubbles. At sufficiently high acoustic amplitudes, these bubbles undergo inertial cavitation: they expand rapidly and then collapse violently. The collapse generates localized hotspots with temperatures estimated to reach up to 5,500 degrees Celsius and pressures up to 50,000 kilopascals, conditions that exist for only fractions of a microsecond but are enough to wreak havoc on nearby microorganisms. The asymmetric collapse of bubbles produces shockwaves, microjets, and microstreaming currents that physically batter bacterial cell walls and membranes, tearing open structures that would otherwise protect the cell.

But the physical assault is only half the story. The extreme conditions inside collapsing bubbles also split water vapor into hydrogen and hydroxyl radicals, reactive oxygen species that penetrate bacterial cells through membrane pores and attack intracellular biomolecules. Hydroxyl radicals can cleave the DNA double helix, induce base modifications, and trigger lipid peroxidation in the phospholipid bilayer by reacting with polyunsaturated fatty acids. The result is oxidative degradation of proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids, culminating in cell death. A related phenomenon, sonoluminescence, in which collapsing bubbles emit light across a broad spectrum, can further amplify microbial inactivation when a photocatalytic sonosensitizer is present, because the emitted light excites the sensitizer and generates additional reactive species. Together, these mechanical and chemical mechanisms make cavitation a genuinely multi-pronged antimicrobial weapon rather than a single-mode killer.

The review emphasizes that not all ultrasound equipment delivers this weapon equally well. Probe-type systems, in which a sonotrode is immersed directly in the sample, concentrate energy intensely at the tip and deliver the highest power intensity. Bath-type systems, which use sandwich transducers mounted on tank walls and rely on water as a coupling medium, suffer from attenuation of the ultrasound in the water, resulting in power intensity roughly one hundred times lower than probe systems. Both configurations irradiate from a single direction, producing non-uniform energy distribution within the treated volume. Continuous-flow systems, a newer development, address this weakness by circulating the product through a treatment zone, and some cylindrical designs generate ultrasonic energy in a 360-degree pattern, giving circulating milk stronger and more uniform exposure. These systems also allow operators to tune flow rate and number of treatment cycles alongside the usual power, amplitude, and frequency settings, a flexibility that matters greatly for industrial scale-up.

The experimental record assembled in the review shows how strongly outcomes depend on thermal conditions. Under controlled room-temperature conditions, where cooling systems or ice baths suppress heating, ultrasound alone achieves moderate inactivation. Mudgil and colleagues found that treating camel milk with probe-type ultrasound at 160 watts and 20 kilohertz for ten minutes reduced total aerobic bacteria by approximately 4.16 log CFU per milliliter, Staphylococcus species by 3.40 log, and lactic acid bacteria by 1.50 log. Chouliara’s group reported roughly 2 log reductions in total viable and psychrotrophic counts in milk after sixteen minutes at 200 watts and 24 kilohertz without added heat. In a Kinnow whey beverage, fifteen minutes of 400-watt, 20-kilohertz treatment cut total aerobic bacteria by about 1 log and molds and yeasts by 1.61 log. These are meaningful reductions, but they fall short of what regulators demand.

When the natural temperature rise of ultrasound is allowed to accumulate rather than suppressed, the numbers improve dramatically. Treating raw milk with probe-type ultrasound at 19 kilohertz and 475 watts for 158 seconds raised the temperature to 54 degrees Celsius and reduced mesophilic bacteria by about 2.6 log and lactic acid bacteria by 2.1 log. More strikingly, Shamila-Syuhada and colleagues showed that raw milk treated at 200 watts and 24 kilohertz for fifteen minutes reached 60 degrees Celsius at the higher amplitude tested, and at that point reductions of approximately 8 log CFU per milliliter were recorded for Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, E. coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and two Lactobacillus species. Scudino’s team demonstrated the same principle through energy density: 1 kilojoule per milliliter raised raw milk to only 34 degrees Celsius with no detectable bacterial reduction, 3 kilojoules per milliliter reached 55 degrees Celsius and achieved a 1.8 log reduction, and 5 kilojoules per milliliter pushed the temperature to 76 degrees Celsius, delivering a 4 log reduction in just over four minutes. In chocolate milk, an energy density of 3 kilojoules per cubic centimeter at 400 watts and 19 kilohertz produced a 3.56 log reduction with a final temperature of only 42 degrees Celsius.

Thermally assisted ultrasound, combining acoustic cavitation with deliberately applied mild heat, offers perhaps the most pragmatic route to regulatory compliance. Van Hekken and colleagues applied continuous-flow ultrasound at dual frequencies of 16 and 20 kilohertz and 1,200 watts to raw milk held at 54 degrees Celsius for fourteen minutes, achieving reductions of 3.36 log in total mesophilic bacteria and 4.88 log in psychrotrophic bacteria, whereas the same treatment at 42 degrees Celsius showed no bactericidal effect at all. In human milk, bath-type ultrasound at 60 degrees Celsius reduced Staphylococcus aureus by approximately 4.58 log, while treatment at 20 degrees Celsius had no effect. The synergy arises because mild heat weakens the protective function of the bacterial cell envelope and increases cavitation efficiency, making cells simultaneously easier to rupture mechanically and more vulnerable to radical attack.

Yet the review is candid about the obstacles standing between these promising numbers and commercial reality. Under the Codex Alimentarius, any validated milk pasteurization technology must achieve at least a 5 log CFU per milliliter reduction of non-spore-forming pathogenic bacteria, and only a handful of ultrasound studies have crossed that threshold using ultrasound alone. Pushing intensity high enough to meet the standard risks damaging the product: ultrasound-generated radicals promote lipid oxidation and create volatile compounds responsible for metallic, burnt, and rubbery off-flavors in treated milk. There are also safety concerns specific to the equipment itself, since probe erosion can release metallic particles into the product and ultrasound accelerates electrochemical corrosion of stainless steel in the presence of chlorides. The authors argue that the future lies in continuous-flow systems suitable for large-scale processing, hurdle combinations of ultrasound with mild heat, pulsed electric fields, ultraviolet treatment, or natural antimicrobials, and real-time digital process control that can hold both microbial safety and sensory quality within tight tolerances.

What emerges from the review is not a verdict but a roadmap. Ultrasound is safe, non-toxic, relatively inexpensive to build, and well suited to liquid foods, and its antimicrobial mechanisms are now well characterized at the cellular level. The decisive variable is heat: whether it is suppressed, harvested, or deliberately supplied determines whether ultrasound is a gentle quality-preserving treatment or a genuine pasteurization technology. As consumer demand grows for fresh-flavored, minimally processed dairy, and as outbreaks linked to pasteurization failures continue to surface, the pressure to validate sound-based alternatives will only intensify. The next few years of equipment engineering and regulatory data generation will determine whether the dairy industry’s next pasteurizer hums rather than hisses.

Subject of Research: Ultrasonic pasteurization of milk and milk-based beverages using different ultrasound systems and thermal conditions

Article Title: A review of ultrasonic pasteurization in milk and milk-based beverages using different ultrasound systems and thermal conditions: from mechanistic insights to regulatory challenges

Article References: Yu, R., Park, S.-Y., Rathnayake, P. Y., Yeo, S. E., Nam, C., Cho, H. U., Baek, K. H., & Yong, H. I. (2026). A review of ultrasonic pasteurization in milk and milk-based beverages using different ultrasound systems and thermal conditions: from mechanistic insights to regulatory challenges. Food Science of Animal Resources, 46(1), Article 90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44463-026-00105-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44463-026-00105-5

Keywords: ultrasound, pasteurization, milk, dairy, acoustic cavitation, food safety, microbial inactivation, non-thermal processing, reactive oxygen species, continuous-flow ultrasound, foodborne pathogens, dairy processing