Survey on husbandry and cheese manufacturing practices in small ruminants' farmhouse dairies in Central Italy.

Farmhouse cheeses made from raw ovine or caprine milk are very popular among the consumers not only in Italy but also overseas because of their unique organoleptic properties. These cheeses are usually manufactured, according to traditional methods, in small rudimental facilities adjacent to the farm where the achievement of satisfactory hygienic standards can be challenging. However, the lack of systematic data about farm management and the cheese manufacturing processes hampers the conduction of specific risk assessment studies. In order to fill the knowledge gaps, we collected relevant data, through a questionnaire - based survey, from 125 small ruminants' farmhouse dairies spread in Lazio. Results showed that 1.1% of registered farms process their own milk for the production of raw milk cheeses. Hand milking is still applied in almost half of them and most products are subject to a short ­ to ­ medium ripening period which might not be sufficient to reduce eventual pathogen load. Products are mainly sold directly to consumers on the farm premises. Our results suggest the need to support these artisan cheese producers in order to improve the production standards without altering the traditional cheesemaking practices. The reported data are also useful for specific risk assessment studies.

Challenge Test as Special Tool to Estimate the Dynamic of Listeria monocytogenes and Other Foodborne Pathogens.

Over 23 million cases of foodborne disease (FBD) occur in Europe each year, with over 4700 deaths. Outbreaks of FBD have a significant impact on our society due to the high economic losses they cause (hospital treatment of affected patients and destruction of contaminated food). Among its health objectives, the European Union has set itself the goal of reducing the incidence of the main FBDs, approving various regulations that codify requirements in order to produce food that is "safe" for human consumption. Among these rules, Regulation 2005/2073 establishes precise food safety criteria for foods that are judged to be most at risk of causing episodes of FBD. The food business operator (FBO) must know their food better and know how to estimate whether a food can support the growth of food pathogens or if they are able to hinder it during the food's shelf life. It is becoming crucial for each FBO to schedule specific laboratory tests (challenge tests) to establish the growth potential of individual pathogens and their maximum growth rate. In 2008 the European Union published the guidelines for programming the challenge tests for Listeria monocytogenes in RTE foods. These guidelines were further implemented in 2014 and again in 2019. In June 2019 the UNI EN ISO 20976-1 was published, which contains indications for setting up and carrying out challenge tests for all foodborne pathogens in all foods. In this article, we compare the three official documents to highlight their common aspects and differences, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages that each of them offers for those who have to set up a challenge test for the various foodborne pathogens. Our conclusion is that the challenge test is today the most effective tool to estimate the dynamics and growth potential of pathogenic microorganisms in food, if it is designed and implemented in a scrupulous way. It is important to develop a rational experimental design for each challenge test, and for each food, and this requires professionals who are experts in this specific field of study and who must be properly trained.

Evaluation Model of Plate Waste to Monitor Food Consumption in Two Different Catering Settings.

An increasing number of people regularly eats lunch away from home, using catering services. In this context, therefore, it is extremely important to improve the meals' quality, remaining faithful to the principles of hygiene, nutritional and organoleptic quality and proper food handling. At the same time, it is necessary to promote food choices, nutritionally correct, by evaluations of appropriateness of menus. The study of food waste allows an evaluation of the nutritional habits of consumers and an important economic consideration of the costs incurred for the implementation of the service. This becomes even more important in some particularly sensitive groups, such as children and elderly. The purpose of this work is to test a model of semi-quantitative evaluation of waste to monitor food consumption in two different catering contexts (educational and business), in order to improve the service for school students and other consumers.

Effect of the Biocontrol Yeast Rhodotorula glutinis Strain LS11 on Patulin Accumulation in Stored Apples.

ABSTRACT Contamination of apples (Malus domestica) and derived juices with fungicide residues and patulin produced by Penicillium expansum are major issues of food safety. Biocontrol agents represent an alternative or supplement to chemicals for disease control. Our data show that these microbes could also contribute to actively decreasing patulin accumulation in apples. Three biocontrol agents, Rhodotorula glutinis LS11, Cryptococcus laurentii LS28, and Aureobasidium pullulans LS30, were examined for their in vitro growth in the presence of patulin and for their capability to decrease mycotoxin recovery from the medium. Strain LS11 yielded the highest growth rates and the greatest decrease of toxin recoveries. Further, it caused the appearance of two major spots on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates, suggesting possible metabolization of the mycotoxin. In vivo, i.e., in the low percentage of LS11-pretreated apples infected by P. expansum, patulin accumulation was significantly lower than in nontreated infected fruits. Yeast cells survived and increased in infected apples and, in a model system emulating decaying apple, resulted in accelerated breakdown of patulin and the production of the same TLC spots as those detected in vitro. These data suggest that biocontrol yeast cells surviving in decaying apples could metabolize patulin and/or negatively affect its accumulation or synthesis. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of a biocontrol agent on patulin accumulation in vivo.