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High occurrences of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis outbreak from table eggs have been reported worldwide over the past two decades. Consumptions of hard-boiled and half-boiled eggs are popular among Malaysians. However, there is a lack of study in the risk assessment of salmonellosis associated with different egg consumption patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine the survival rate of S. enterica ser. Enteritidis in different methods for cooking eggs (hard-boiled, half-boiled and a minimally cooked egg with hot cocoa drink) using the simulation model of consumers eating habits and the risk associated with different egg consumptions patterns. In this study, S. enterica ser. Enteritidis was not detected in the hard-boiled egg samples. However, the survival rate of S. enterica ser. Enteritidis in both the half-boiled and the raw egg samples were 3.15 log CFU/mL and 7.01 log CFU/mL, respectively. The Monte Carlo Simulation applying quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) was carried out using 10,000 iterations to access the risk of acquiring salmonellosis by consuming eggs cooked under different heat treatments. The total dosage of S. enterica ser. Enteritidis ingested per serving meal in the hard-boiled, half-boiled and minimally cooked eggs were 0.00 CFU/g, 7.526×104 CFU/ mL and 5.433×108 CFU/mL, respectively. The consumptions of half-boiled and minimally cooked eggs were above infectious dosage level (102 to 104 CFU/mL). The annual risk for the three feature of methods were 0.00, 1.00 and 1.00, respectively. In this study, it was indicated that there was a high probability of acquiring salmonellosis through the consumption of half-boiled and minimally cooked eggs. Thus, the fully cooked eggs should be taken instead of the undercooked eggs to avoid consuming S. enterica ser. Enteritidis.

Presence of Salmonella in organic farming may lead to contamination in fresh produce. This study was designed to detect Salmonella contamination in organic vegetable farm situated in Serdang and to evaluate the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of the isolates. A total of 460 samples of brinjal, cucumber, ladies’ fingers and soil were collected and examined for the presence of Salmonella. The obtained isolates were identified and confirmed by biochemical characterization and serotyping. Antibiotic sensitivity profiles of the isolates were determined by using agar disk diffusion method. Salmonella spp. was detected in brinjal (1.7%, n=2), cucumber (1.7%, n=2), ladies’ fingers (2.5%, n=3) and soil (5.0%, n=5) samples. The prevalent serovars were Salmonella enterica ser. Senftenberg, S. enterica ser. Weltevreden and S. enterica ser. Corvallis. All strains were resistance to penicillin and vancomycin, with multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index between 0.21 and 0.36, demonstrated here as multi-drug resistant (MDR) Salmonella. The result highlighted that organic vegetables constituted potential sources of Salmonella, informing continuous monitoring and tightened surveillance are necessary to ensure food safety.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a foodborne bacterial pathogen that may cause gastroenteritis in humans through the consumption of seafood contaminated with this microorganism. The emergence of antimicrobial and multidrug-resistant bacteria is another serious public health threat worldwide. In this study, the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility test of V. parahaemolyticus in blood clams, shrimps, surf clams, and squids were determined. The overall prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood was 85.71% (120/140), consisting of 91.43% (32/35) in blood clam, 88.57% (31/35) in shrimps, 82.86% (29/35) in surf clams, and 80% (28/35) in squids. The majority of V. parahaemolyticus isolates from the seafood samples were found to be susceptible to most antibiotics except ampicillin, cefazolin, and penicillin. The MAR indices of V. parahaemolyticus isolates ranged from 0.04 to 0.71 and about 90.83% of isolates were found resistant to more than one antibiotic. The high prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood and multidrug-resistant isolates detected in this study could pose a potential risk to human health and hence appropriate control methods should be in place to minimize the potential contamination and prevent the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

The eating of fresh and minimally processed vegetables is getting popular among Malaysians. This trend poses an increased risk of food poisoning associated with the consumption of fresh produce contaminated with pathogenic bacteria. Salmonellosis is a foodborne disease caused by several non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica serovars, predominantly serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of Salmonella spp., S. enterica serovar Enteritidis and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium in fresh leafy vegetables such as cabbages (n = 40), lettuces (n = 20), and fruit vegetables such as tomatoes (n = 40), carrots (n = 40) and cucumbers (n = 40), which were sold by three different hypermarkets and a wet market in Kampar, Perak, Malaysia. The study was performed over a period of 13 months (January 2018 to January 2019). A combination of most probable number-multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPN-mPCR) method was used to quantify the concentrations of Salmonella spp., S. enterica serovar Enteritidis and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium in the examined samples. The results of this study demonstrated that of the vegetables tested, tomatoes, carrots and lettuces were not contaminated by Salmonella spp., S. enterica serovar Enteritidis and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. However, the presence of Salmonella spp. was detected in 3.3% of cabbages from the hypermarket, with estimated microbial loads ranging from 1,100 MPN/g. This indicated that cabbages and cucumbers could be the potential sources of salmonellosis. Therefore, the monitoring of food safety and hygienic practices should be strictly enforced by relevant government agencies to avoid potential poisoning by foodborne pathogens.

Consumption of chicken offal is common and famous among Malaysians as it is often served as one of the side dishes with rice. Chicken offal can be a potential source of Listeria monocytogenes because slaughtered animals are recognized as a reservoir for foodborne pathogens. L. monocytogenes is a dangerous foodborne pathogen which can cause severe foodborne listeriosis with high fatality rate. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of different washing pre-treatment and cooking methods to reduce L. monocytogenes in artificially contaminated chicken offal. All the washing pre-treatments (dip treatment in different water sources and wash treatment with different water flow rates) showed significant reduction of the pathogen (p

A preliminary quantitative microbial risk assessment of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in short mackerels was conducted from retail to consumption levels in a stochastic model. The key uncertainties included of growth during retail display, transportation duration, and microbial log reduction after the preparation and cooking steps were taken into consideration in the exposure assessment. Human health risk associated with the consumption of short mackerels contaminated with pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus was predicted by fitting the number of cells ingested into a Beta-Poisson dose-response model. Advanced sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the predictive factors most highly correlated with risk illness. The model evaluated through Monte Carlo simulation revealed an estimated number of illness ranged from 1.34 × 10−4 to 12.80 with an average incidence of 2.07 cases per annum. The rates per 100,000 population were predicted at 6.53 × 10−3 cases per year in Malaysia. In this study, the development of quantitative microbial risk assessment of V. parahaemolyticus in short mackerels provides valuable information such as the probability of illness associated with the consumption of short mackerels and the primary factor quantitatively important for risk illness.

In the present study, a Salmonella Typhimurium-specific bacteriophage designated as ST02, belonged to the Myoviridae family was isolated from retail meat samples. Host range determination showed that ST02 was capable of infecting other Salmonella strains with latent period of 15 min and burst size about 97 PFU/cell. ST02 was stable over a wide range of pH (4–11) and at the temperature ranging from 4 to 50 °C. A significant decrease (P

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to evolve as a major threat to human health, and new strategies are required for the treatment of AMR infections. Bacteriophages (phages) that kill bacterial pathogens are being identified for use in phage therapies, with the intention to apply these bactericidal viruses directly into the infection sites in bespoke phage cocktails. Despite the great unsampled phage diversity for this purpose, an issue hampering the roll out of phage therapy is the poor quality annotation of many of the phage genomes, particularly for those from infrequently sampled environmental sources. We developed a computational tool called STEP3 to use the “evolutionary features” that can be recognized in genome sequences of diverse phages. These features, when integrated into an ensemble framework, achieved a stable and robust prediction performance when benchmarked against other prediction tools using phages from diverse sources. Validation of the prediction accuracy of STEP3 was conducted with high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis of two novel phages, isolated from a watercourse in the Southern Hemisphere. STEP3 provides a robust computational approach to distinguish specific and universal features in phages to improve the quality of phage cocktails and is available for use at http://step3.erc.monash.edu/. IMPORTANCE In response to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, there are moves to use bacteriophages (phages) as therapeutic agents. Selecting which phages will be effective therapeutics relies on interpreting features contributing to shelf-life and applicability to diagnosed infections. However, the protein components of the phage virions that dictate these properties vary so much in sequence that best estimates suggest failure to recognize up to 90% of them. We have utilized this diversity in evolutionary features as an advantage, to apply machine learning for prediction accuracy for diverse components in phage virions. We benchmark this new tool showing the accurate recognition and evaluation of phage component parts using genome sequence data of phages from undersampled environments, where the richest diversity of phage still lies.

Campylobacter jejuni is a major foodborne pathogen causing acute bacterial enteritis worldwide. Screening of novel bacteriophages as biocontrol tools to eliminate C. jejuni in food during pre- and postharvest is an emerging research field. In this study, we partially characterized C. jejuni bacteriophage CJ01 for potential use as biocontrol agent. Transmission electron microscopy revealed bacteriophage CJ01 belonged to the Myoviridae family with a genome size of approximately 136 kb. The results of host range assay revealed CJ01 was able to infect C. jejuni and C. lari strains, with burst size about 35 phages per infected cell and latent period of 30 min. The effectiveness of bacteriophage CJ01 (with 100 multiplicity of infection = 100) was determined in mutton and chicken meat artificially contaminated with C. jejuni. The amount of C. jejuni in treated mutton and chicken meat were significantly reduced by 1.70 log CFU/g and 1.68 log CFU/g, respectively, after 48 hr stored at refrigeration temperature (4°C). The data presented here suggest that bacteriophage CJ01 can be used as a postharvest biocontrol agent. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a remarkable pathogen which causes nosocomial diseases worldwide. In this study, raw green mussel and cockle samples in Malaysia were collected and investigated for the occurrence of MRSA. A total of 80 samples were analyzed using phenotypic and molecular approaches. A assembling of the most probable number (MPN) with multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) technique was used to identify MRSA in the samples. The occurrences of S. aureus and MRSA in shellfish samples were 15% and 8.75%, respectively, with the microbial load from

Microwave oven is an indispensable tool in every household. However, the proper usage of the microwave ovens was neglected and thus, causing food safety concerns, especially microbiological hazard in microwaved heated food. Therefore, a survey was initiated to gauge the consumer’s knowledge of microwave oven safety concerning the food safety of reheated food. A total of 29 survey questions was designed that covered 5 demographic questions and 24 others on the knowledge and practice of microwave oven safety and food safety attitude. The survey was blasted out to 329 respondents via email. Overall, 189 (57.4%) returned respondents demonstrated low level of knowledge of the microwave oven safety, which indicated improper education of the microwave oven despite knowing the norms on the microwave oven usage. In addition, consumers demonstrated low levels of practicing microwave oven safety. The outcome of the survey also showed consumer’s neutral attitude towards food safety. There was no statistically significant association between the variables and demographic. The minimum knowledge of microwave oven and food safety shown by the consumers requires the attention to improve the food safety educational programs by including the knowledge on microwave oven safety for the betterment of the public health.

Epidemiological data indicates that a large number of foodborne illnesses are attributed to cross-contamination during food preparation in the domestic kitchen. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the efficiency of household washing practices in removing Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella Enteritidis on artificially contaminated lettuce and to determine the transfer rate of these three foodborne pathogens from contaminated lettuce to wash water, tomato, cabbage, and cutting boards during washing and cutting processes. Washing under the running tap water with scrubbing for 60 s was the most effective method in reducing pathogen populations by 1.86–2.60 log10 CFU/g. Also, final rinsing and scrubbing practices were found to enhance the efficiency of washing treatment. In this study, the transfer rates of S. Enteritidis, E. coli O157:H7, and L. monocytogenes from cutting board to cabbage and tomato via cutting process (17.5–31.7%) were higher (P < 0.05) than from wash water to cabbage and tomato (0.8–23.0%) during washing treatment. Overall, our findings suggest that wash water and cutting board can be potential vehicles in the dissemination of foodborne pathogens. Therefore, there is a need to promote consumer awareness for proper handling practices in the kitchen to minimise the risk of foodborne infection.

Food safety in Malaysia is not considered an issue yet. From the previous year (2005- 2015) records, the incidence rate of food poisoning had been fluctuating and despite that, cases continue to occur especially among school students. As a developing nation, it is high-time that Malaysia begins to emphasize on food safety to reduce the burden of foodborne illness in the socio-economic development of the country, and at the same time, gain benefits in terms of economic returns and trade through food safety enforcement. Most importantly, public health is achieved through food safety implementation and accentuation. The current standing point of the Malaysia’s food safety is discussed in this review. In addition, the review will also discuss the role of academicians as intervention contributions in tackling food safety issues. The review is hoped to provide valuable and concentrated information and knowledge to readers in the light to drive Malaysia into ensuring safer food for the public.

A Salmonella Enteritidis lytic bacteriophage designated as SE07 was isolated from retail meat samples. Electron micrograph revealed that phage SE07 belonged to family Podoviridae. Phage SE07 was relatively stable at the temperature ranging from 28 to 65 °C. Furthermore, it exhibited remarkable pH stability (between pH 4.0–11.0). The effectiveness of phage SE07 was determined in different food matrices (fruit juice, fresh eggs, beef and chicken meat) experimentally contaminated with S. Enteritidis. A significant reduction of S. Enteritidis population (about 2 log cycles) was obtained in fruit juice and fresh eggs after incubation at 4 °C for 48 h. Furthermore, within the same period, bacterial population was reduced by 2.1 and 2.0 log cycles on the bacteriophage treated beef and chicken meat samples, respectively. In this study, the obtained data suggested that phage SE07 might have potential uses against Salmonella food-borne infections.

Irrespective of its health effects, street foods are very popular with the consumers. The main purpose of this research was to study the biosafety of Escherichia coli in popiah, a Malaysian street food sold at a roadside food stall and a restaurant in Sri Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, using the combination of the most probable number (MPN)-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay-plating on Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) agar methods. Using these biomolecular methods, E. coli was detected in 12/15 (80%) and 11/15 (73%) of the collected samples from the roadside food stall and the restaurant respectively. The incidence of stx virulence-associated genes was detected in 1/15 (7%) among the E. coli isolated from samples taken from the roadside food stall while the E. coli isolated from the restaurant was 3/15 (20%). The density of E. coli ranged from 1100 MPN/g and the density of E. coli positive with stx genes was

Salmonellosis is one of the major food-borne diseases in many countries. This study was carried out to determine the occurrence of Salmonella spp., Salmonella Enteritidis, and Salmonella Typhimurium in raw chicken meat from wet markets and hypermarkets in Selangor, as well as to determine the antibiotic susceptibility profile of S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium. The most probable number (MPN) in combination with multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) method was used to quantify the Salmonella spp., S. Enteritidis, and S. Typhimurium in the samples. The occurrence of Salmonella spp., S. Enteritidis, and S. Typhimurium in 120 chicken meat samples were 20.80%, 6.70%, and 2.50%, respectively with estimated quantity varying from

Stichopus horrens Selenka or locally known as ‘gamat emas ’has been reputed to have aphrodisiac property which able to increase sexual desire and help to improve potency. However, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the potential ofS. horrens extract as a source of aphrodisiac agent. Three doses; 50, 100 and 200 mg kg ’ ’of S. horrens extract were administered intraperitoneally to male mice for measuring the mounting behavior and mating assessment while 200 mg kg−1 being administered for serum testosterone analysis. The effect of extract dose between each hour interval showed significant differences (p