• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.340-345
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• 1997

This study was undertaken to evaluate microbial risk degree of some processed foods in Korea. In this study the data on the outbreak of foodborne diseases during recent 18 years (1976-1989, 1993-1996. 8) were analyzed. The most frequently isolated pathogens were Salmonella (36.9%); followed vibrio (22.0%), Staphylococcus (15.7%) and Escherichia coli (13.3%). Outbreak rate of Staphylococcus, Vibrio, E. coli and Salmonella, was 33.0%, 23.5%, 17.5% and 17.1%, respectively. Overall risk degree of pathogens by fatality rate, outbreak rate and pathogen amount for foodborne outbreak was Clostridium, 5, Staphylococcus and Vibrio, 4, Salmonella and E. coli, 3. Based on foodborne pathogens, the risk degree of raw seafoods, raw eggs and processed seafoods were 4, and those of raw meats, Doshiraks and milk products were 3. Also, based on processing characteristics of foods, the risk degree of surimi-based imitation crab was 3. Foods of the highest actual risk degree were raw seafoods and raw eggs (16); followed raw meats (15), surimi-based imitation crab (12), Doshirak (9) and milk products (6).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2004

• Safe Food
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.13-18
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• 2010

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2022

The rapid development of biotechnology has increased the importance of microorganisms or their genetic information. Thus, the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization was established, and countries are working to secure industrially and academically useful bioresources to deal with the agreement. In the case of Korea, because 67% of bioresources are imported from abroad, we are required to secure domestic bioresources as well. The number of isolated foodborne illness-causing microorganisms is predicted to invrease based on the incresing number of outbreaks of foodborne illness each year. Consequently, appropriate long-term preservation methods are necessary to secure the isolated microorganisms for the purpose of research and resourcification. Therefore, the long-term preservation methods for bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa were investigated in this study, from domestic and international bioresource banks, and the functions of the cryoprotectants were reviewed and discussed. This review should be informative in the preservation of microorganisms and contribute to the development of biotechnology.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2021

Foodborne outbreaks frequently occur worldwide and result in huge economic losses. It is the therefore important to estimate the costs associated with foodborne diseases to minimize the economic damage. At the same time, it is difficult to accurately estimate the economic loss from foodborne disease due to a wide variety of cost components. In Korea, there are a limited number of analytical studies attempting to estimate such costs. In this study we investigated the components of economic cost used in foreign countries to better estimate the cost of foodborne disease in Korea. Seven recent studies investigated the cost components used to estimate the cost of foodborne disease in humans. This study categorized the economic loss into four types of cost: direct costs, indirect costs, food business costs, and government administration costs. The healthcare costs most often included were medical (outpatient) and hospital costs (inpatient). However, these cost components should be selected according to the systems and budgets of medical services by country. For non-healthcare costs, several other studies considered transportation costs to the hospital as an exception to the cost of inpatient care. So, further discussion is needed on whether to consider inpatient care costs. Among the indirect costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, lost leisure time, and lost quality of life/pain, grief and suffering costs were considered, but the opportunity costs for hospital visits were not considered in any of the above studies. As with healthcare costs, government administration costs should also be considered appropriate cost components due to the difference in government budget systems, for example. Our findings will provide fundamental information for economic analysis associated with foodborne diseases to improve food safety policy in Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2023

Concerns about foodborne illnesses caused by Kudoa septempunctata are steadily growing, but reports of K. septempunctata in clinical and food specimens related to food poisoning in Korea are limited. This study aimed to genetically identify K. septempunctata in patients with acute diarrhea and in clinical and food samples related to food poisoning caused by sashimi consumption. Both real-time and nested polymerase chain reaction assays were performed to detect K. septempunctata 18S and 28S rDNA genes in the stools of 348 patients with acute diarrhea, 11 samples (6 stool and 5 rectal swab samples) from patients with food poisoning, and 2 raw Paralichthys olivaceus samples collected from a restaurant where a food poisoning incident occurred. K. septempunctata was identified in 5 clinical specimens (4 stools and 1 rectal swab) and 1 P. olivaceus sashimi sample. All detected K. septempunctata were of genotype ST3. This is the first study to identify K. septempunctata in both patients and food samples with epidemiological relevance in Korea, providing evidence that it is a pathogen that causes food poisoning. Also, this is the first study to confirm the presence of K. septempunctata genes in rectal swabs. Despite continuing suspected occurrences of Kudoa foodborne outbreaks, the rate of identification of K. septempunctata is very low. One reason for this is the limitation in obtaining stool and vomit samples for the diagnosis of Kudoa infection. We strongly suggest the inclusion of rectal swabs among the diagnostic specimens for Kudoa food poisoning.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.96-96
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• 2009

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2019

The consumption of fresh vegetables has been related to recurrent outbreaks of foodborne diseases (FBD) worldwide. Therefore, the development of effective alternative technologies is necessary to improve the safety of these products. This study aimed to isolate and identify epiphytic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from fresh fruits and leafy vegetables and characterize their antagonistic capacity due to their ability to produce bacteriocins or antibacterial compounds. For this, 92 LAB isolates from fruits and leafy vegetables were screened for antagonistic activity. Two strains with the highest and broadest antagonistic activities were selected for further characterization; one from cantaloupe melon (strain CM175) and one from cilantro leaves (strain C15). The cell-free supernatants (CFS) of CM175 and C15 were found to exhibit antagonistic activity against FBD-causing pathogens. The CM175 and C15 strains were identified as Pediococcus pentosaceus and Lactobacillus graminis, respectively. Notably, the P. pentosaceus CM175 CFS stopped the growth of Salmonella Typhimurium, Salmonella Saintpaul, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes, and delayed Escherichia coli O157:H7 growth. Moreover, L. graminis C15 CFS delayed the growth of all indicator pathogens, but did not completely stop it. Organic acids and bacteriocin-like molecules were determined to be possibly exerting the observed antagonistic activity of the identified LAB strains. Thus, application of the antagonistic compounds produced by Pediococcus pentosaceus and Lactobacillus graminis could be a novel and ecological strategy in developing antimicrobial biopreservatives for the food industry and mitigating FBD by reducing the biological contamination in fruit and vegetable orchards, mainly via their potential in controlling both gram-negative and gram-positive pathogenic bacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2023

The foodborne illness is the important public health concerns, and the livestock feces are known to be one of the major reservoirs of foodborne pathogens. Also, it was reported that 45.5% of foodborne illness outbreaks have been associated with the animal products contaminated with the livestock feces. In addition, it has been known that the persistence of a pathogens depends on many potential virulent factors including the various virulent genes. Therefore, the first step to understanding the public health risk of livestock feces is to identify and describe microbial communities and potential virulent genes that contribute to bacterial pathogenicity. We used the whole metagenome shotgun sequencing to evaluate the prevalence of foodborne pathogens and to characterize the virulence associated genes in pig and chicken feces. Our data showed that the relative abundance of potential foodborne pathogens, such as Bacillus cereus was higher in chickens than pigs at the species level while the relative abundance of foodborne pathogens including Campylobacter coli was only detected in pigs. Also, the microbial functional characteristics of livestock feces revealed that the gene families related to "Biofilm formation and quorum sensing" were highly enriched in pigs than chicken. Moreover, the variety of gene families associated with "Resistance to antibiotics and toxic compounds" were detected in both animals. These results will help us to prepare the scientific action plans to improve awareness and understanding of the public health risks of livestock feces.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.878-884
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• 2013

Salmonella is a major foodborne pathogen that causes a variety of human diseases. Development of ligands directly and specifically binding to the Salmonella will be crucial for the rapid detection of, and thus for efficient protection from, the virulent bacteria. In this study, we identified a RNA aptamer-based ligand that can specifically recognize Salmonella Typhimurium through SELEX technology. To this end, we isolated and characterized an RNase-resistant RNA aptamer that bound to the OmpC protein of Salmonella Typhimurium with high specificity and affinity ($K_d$ ~ 20 nM). Of note, the selected aptamer was found to specifically bind to Salmonella Typhimurium, but neither to Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) nor to other Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7). This was evinced by aptamer-immobilized ELISA and aptamer-linked precipitation experiments. This Salmonella species-specific aptamer could be useful as a diagnostic ligand against pathogen-caused foodborne sickness.