Dear Colleagues,

Meat products are recognized as one of the most perishable foods favoring microbial growth. A variety of bacteria, as well as viruses and parasites, can contaminate meat products, and a high percentage of food is wasted due to microbial alteration. Meat represents the main vehicle of foodborne pathogens, and it is implicated in certain foodborne outbreaks. A significant number of pathogens can be transmitted to humans through meat products, but the risks can be mitigated. The prevalence of some traditional pathogens has been reduced, while others have persisted for decades, and new ones, often more-virulent or antibiotic-resistant strains of existing microorganisms, are emerging over time. Microbiological food controls play a fundamental role in ensuring the food safety of meat products.

This Special Issue encourages the submission of original research or reviews of the scientific literature addressing microbial pathogens and their control through the implementation of food safety programs in the meat production chain.

This Special Issue will address the recent advances in molecular-based technologies, including advances in microbial quantitative detection methodologies, developed with the aim of further elucidating how microbial foodborne hazards contaminate, survive and persist in meat and in the food chain, or helping producers and food safety authorities in the microbiological control of the safety of food lots.

The Special Issue of Foods will also address studies on the microbiological molecular methods used in epidemiological studies for outbreak investigation and source attribution. The application of molecular-based subtyping methods, including pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), multi-locus variable number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) and, more recently, whole genome sequencing (WGS), has recently replaced phenotype-based testing for the subtyping of microbial pathogens, providing a greater level of discrimination and improving the identification of transmission pathways.

Studies concerning the phylogenesis of the main important foodborne pathogens will also be welcomed. Clear and concisely written manuscripts will be highly desirable and appreciated.

Dr. Elisabetta Delibato
Dr. Dario De Medici 
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• meat safety
• foodborne pathogens
• molecular technologies