Antimicrobial resistance and food safety: A public health challenge

Speaker: Dr. Jovana Kovacevic
The development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health threat that can turn into a global crisis if not mitigated. AMR reduces our ability to effectively combat infectious bacterial diseases and is becoming a relevant concern in food safety and sanitation. Environmental foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes, can develop stress response mechanisms that impact AMR, with implications for cleaning and sanitizing programs in the food industry. Understanding how food processing environments and associated activities impact the development of AMR is thus extremely important.
In addition to an ongoing issue with lack of clear terminology to characterize AMR, there is a need for standardization in the methodology and definitions of sanitizer resistance, tolerance, and susceptibility. An ongoing challenge is that different messages are conveyed in different research studies, with the translation to industry implications often being lost. In food processing environments, appropriate cleaning and sanitation procedures need to be paired with optimal hygienic design of the facility and equipment. However, this combination is rare, particularly in fresh produce facilities. These less-than-ideal environments can create settings in which bacteria are exposed to sub-lethal sanitizer concentrations. Links between reduced susceptibility to quaternary ammonium compound (QAC)-based sanitizers and antibiotic resistance have been reported for various foodborne bacteria.
This webinar presentation explores the use of antimicrobials in the food processing industry, selective pressures linked to emergence and spread of foodborne microorganisms that result in reduced susceptibilities to antimicrobials, as well as the co-selection and cross-resistance phenomena through the lens of L. monocytogenes.