Dear Colleagues,

Contamination of foods by human pathogenic microorganisms is a major concern to both food safety and public health.

The changes in consumers’ demand, the food trade globalization, the progress on food production practices and processing technologies all pose new challenges for food industries and regulatory agencies to ensure the safety in food products.

With regard to the microbiological safety, bacteria and virus are the most common foodborne pathogens associated to both sporadic cases and outbreaks.

Foodborne pathogenic bacteria such as, pathogenic E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella and enteric viruses such as human norovirus, hepatitis A and E viruses are the most common causes of foodborne illness in the United States and Europe.

However, bacterial and viral microorganisms differ in terms of their behaviour in food matrices, their stability in food-related environments (e.g., food-contact surfaces; irrigating and processing waters) and their response to food processing technologies and controlling measures.

Thus, specific and sensitive methods are needed to be developed for their detection, and quantification in complex matrices, such as food, and for tracking their occurrence along the food chain to determine the sources of contamination.

Moreover, information on their infectivity/viability is critical for risk assessment even though not easy to achieve because of the cell culture limitations for viral replication and the viable but not cultivable (VBNC) state that prevent bacterial isolation with traditional microbiological methods.  

To fill these gaps, this Special Issue will cover original manuscripts and reviews focused on the development of analytical techniques and the implementation of novel approaches, such as metagenomics, to foster both management practices and control measures. Original research articles investigating relevant methods to detect, quantify and assess viability/infectivity of bacterial and viral human pathogens in the framework of sustainable production practices, innovative processing technologies, and new food products are specifically welcomed.

Dr. Walter Randazzo
Dr. Pilar Truchado
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.

• food safety
• foodborne pathogens
• microbial inactivation
• enteric viruses
• norovirus
• hepatitis A and E
• bacterial community
• viable but non culturable (VBNC) bacteria
• molecular techniques