Prevalence of Salmonella in 11 Spices Offered for Sale from Retail Establishments and in Imported Shipments Offered for Entry to the United States

Abstract

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted a survey to evaluate Salmonella prevalence and aerobic plate counts in packaged (dried) spices offered for sale at retail establishments in the United States. The study included 7,250 retail samples of 11 spice types that were collected during November 2013 to September 2014 and October 2014 to March 2015. No Salmonella-positive samples (based on analysis of 125 g) were found among retail samples of cumin seed (whole or ground), sesame seed (whole, not roasted or toasted, and not black), and white pepper (ground or cracked), for prevalence estimates of 0.00% with 95% Clopper and Pearson's confidence intervals of 0.00 to 0.67%, 0.00 to 0.70%, and 0.00 to 0.63%, respectively. Salmonella prevalence estimates (confidence intervals) for the other eight spice types were 0.19% (0.0048 to 1.1%) for basil leaf (whole, ground, crushed, or flakes), 0.24% (0.049 to 0.69%) for black pepper (whole, ground, or cracked), 0.56% (0.11 to 1.6%) for coriander seed (ground), 0.19% (0.0049 to 1.1%) for curry powder (ground mixture of spices), 0.49% (0.10 to 1.4%) for dehydrated garlic (powder, granules, or flakes), 0.15% (0.0038 to 0.83%) for oregano leaf (whole, ground, crushed, or flakes), 0.25% (0.03 to 0.88%) for paprika (ground or cracked), and 0.64% (0.17 to 1.6%) for red pepper (hot red pepper, e.g., chili, cayenne; ground, cracked, crushed, or flakes). Salmonella isolates were serotyped, and genomes were sequenced. Samples of these same 11 spice types were also examined from shipments of imported spices offered for entry to the United States from 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2015. Salmonella prevalence estimates (based on analysis of two 375-g composite samples) for shipments of imported spices were 1.7 to 18%. The Salmonella prevalence estimates for spices offered for sale at retail establishments for all of the spice types except dehydrated garlic and basil were significantly lower than estimates for shipments of imported spice offered for entry.

Salmonella enterica serovar Kentucky recovered from human clinical cases in Maryland, USA (2011–2015)

“…What is also not adequately described is the degree to which food products entering North America are contaminated with S . Kentucky, but it has been occasionally detected in imported food products (Zhang et al, ; Zhao et al, ).…”

Disseminação De Salmonella No Processamento Industrial Em Pequena Escala De Salame Tradicional

“…De acordo com a Tabela 1, 20% das amostras de condimentos foram positivas para Salmonella e os sorotipos isolados neste ponto foram Brandenburg e S. enterica subesp enterica sorotipo 4,5:-:-. A presença de Salmonella em condimentos usados na elaboração do salame no estabelecimento avaliado confirma o que foi observado por outros estudos, que demonstraram que condimentos (principalmente pimentas) utilizados na formulação de embutidos, podem servir de fonte de diversos micro-organismos patogênicos (Sospedra et al, 2010), entre eles Salmonella (Moreira et al, 2009;Sagoo et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2017) e até mesmo como fonte de contaminação em casos de surtos de doenças veiculadas por alimentos (Zweifel & Stephan, 2011).…”

“…O consumo antes do período ideal de maturação também tem sido relatado como fator desencadeante de surtos causados pela ingestão de salames (Luzzi et al, 2007). Outro fator que pode levar a contaminação do produto final é a utilização de condimentos contaminados com Salmonella (Moreira et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2017, Chitrakar et al, 2018.…”

Optimized imaging methods for species-level identification of food-contaminating beetles

“…Due to associated health risks, food products are regularly inspected for pantry beetle infestation 1 – 4 . The health-risk level involved in such contamination depends on the species of beetle, as some species are more harmful than others 5 – 7 .…”