Rice is a very popular food throughout the world and the basis of the diet of the citizens of many countries. It is used as a raw material for the preparation of many complex dishes in which different ingredients are involved. Rice, as a consequence of their cultivation, harvesting, and handling, is often contaminated with spores of Bacillus cereus, a ubiquitous microorganism found mainly in the soil. B. cereus can multiply under temperature conditions as low as 4 °C in foods that contain rice and have been cooked or subjected to treatments that do not produce commercial sterility. B. cereus produces diarrhoeal or emetic foodborne toxin when the consumer eats food in which a sufficient number of cells have grown. These circumstances mean that every year many outbreaks of intoxication or intestinal problems related to this microorganism are reported. This work is a review from the perspective of risk assessment of the risk posed by B. cereus to the health of consumers and of some control measures that can be used to mitigate such a risk.

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP), a non-thermal technology, which typically uses water as a pressure transfer medium, is characterized by a minimal impact on food characteristics (sensory, nutritional, and functional). Today, this technology, present in many food companies, can effectively inactivate bacterial cells and many enzymes. All this makes HHP very attractive, with very good acceptance by consumers, who value the organoleptic characteristics of products processed by this non-thermal food preservation technology because they associate these products with fresh-like. On the other hand, this technology reduces the need for non-natural synthetic additives of low consumer acceptance.

Seaweeds are a sustainable source of novel functional ingredients with applicability in pharmaceutics, biotechnology, and food science. The bioactivity of most of these marine compounds has scarcely been studied. The present study overviews the bioactivity of the polysaccharide fucoidan derived from Fucus vesiculosus brown algae as an antimicrobial agent against Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The results obtained in vitro in reference medium reveal a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect of fucoidan against both pathogens, this bioactivity being significantly dependent (p-value ≤ 0.05) on the concentration, 5–1000 μg/mL, temperature, 8–37 °C, and exposure time, 0–12 days. The results were validated in the formulation of a new functional pasteurized apple beverage to be commercialized under refrigeration. Fucoidan added at 25–100 μg/mL was highly effective against both pathogens. These results increase knowledge for the future formulation of new functional beverages that include marine compounds (high content in fibre, high content in protein; prebiotic and antioxidant properties), additionally revealing antimicrobial potential.

The optimal high pressure processing treatments (200–400 MPa, 5–15 min) of a pasty matrix of bee-pollen mixed with peptone water (1.5 g/mL) and bee-pollen added to a pineapple juice-based beverage matrix (0–10% (w/v)) were studied in order to guarantee food safety and maximum retention of bioactive compounds. Salmonella and yeasts were used as target microorganisms, while total carotenoid content (TCC), total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant capacity (FRAP) were studied from the food quality point of view. For the pasty matrix of bee-pollen, the results showed a significant influence of pressure and time, increasing the levels of TPC, FRAP, and TCC, in comparison with a control sample. A treatment of 395 MPa for 15 min was found as the optimal. For the pineapple juice-based beverage matrix, the factors pressure and bee-pollen concentration increased the levels of TPC, FRAP and TCC. Optimal conditions were found at 315 MPa for 14.5 min with 8% (w/v) of bee-pollen.The authors thank the Colombian Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS) and the Research Direction of Universidad Nacional de Colombia for their support, project AGL 2013-48993-C2-2-R and FEDER funds for resources.Peer reviewe

A chemical and microbiological characterization on Hermetia illucens larvae was carried out as well as an inactivation study of natural contaminating microorganisms and inoculated E. coli O157:H7 in black soldier larvae by using High Hydrostatic Pressure (250 to 400 MPa, for 1.5 to 15 min). Hermetia illucens was mainly composed of proteins (46.49%, d.m.) followed by fat (37.88%, d.m.). Larvae had a high contamination load of Total Aerobic Mesophilic bacteria (AMB) (1.58x10⁷ cfu/g) and Enterobacteriaceae (1.15x10⁶cfu/g). The presence of pathogenic microorganism varied: no Listeria spp. were found, but Salmonella (1.15x10⁶ cfu/g) and E. coli (7.08x10⁵ cfu/g) were detected in the larvae extract. High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) was effective against natural contaminating yeasts and molds producing more than 5 log cycle reductions at 400 MPa for any of the times considered (2.5 to 7 min), but a low reduction of total microbial load was achieved. The inactivation level of larvae inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 varied. At 400 MPa for 7 min more than 5 log cycle reductions were achieved. Among the three inactivation models studied, the one that best described the inactivation pattern of the cells, according to the Akaike index, was the Biphasic model.

Survival curves of Enterobacter sakazakii inactivated by high hydrostatic pressure were obtained at four pressure levels (250, 300, 350, and 400 MPa), at temperatures below 30°C, in buffered pepton...