Fresh Express follows through

Fresh Express has followed through on its funding commitment for food safety research, and this release describes what is being done.

From the release:
Fresh Express, the No. 1 producer of value-added salads in North America, today announced that nine research teams are being awarded up to $250,000 each to study the Escherichia coli O157:H7 pathogen to advance science-based practices to prevent its occurrence in fresh produce. Fresh Express is funding up to $2 million collectively in research under the guidance of an independent scientific advisory panel as a means to support industrywide food-safety solutions, even though Fresh Express products were not involved in the recent outbreak and never have been shown to have caused an outbreak of food-borne illness.

One-year funding awards of up to $250,000 will be awarded to the following institutions and principal investigators: --
Subsurface contamination and internalization of E. coli O157:H7 in pre-harvest lettuce
Michael P. Doyle, Ph.D., Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia
-- Movement of E. coli O157:H7 in spinach and dissemination to leafy greens by insects
Jacqueline Fletcher, Ph.D., Dept. of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University
-- Interaction of E. coli O157:H7 with fresh leafy green produce Jorge A. Giron, Ph.D., Dept. of Immunobiology, University of Arizona
-- Factors that influence the ability of E. coli O157:H7 to multiply on lettuce and leafy greens
Linda J. Harris, Ph.D., Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, University of California-Davis
-- Fate of E. coli O157:H7 on fresh and fresh-cut iceberg lettuce and spinach in the presence of normal background microflora Mark A. Harrison, Ph.D., Dept. of Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia
-- Determining the environmental factors contributing to the extended survival or regrowth of food-borne pathogens in composting systems Xiuping Jiang, Ph.D., Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Clemson University
-- Quantifying the risk of transfer and internalization of E. coli O157:H7 during processing of leafy greens Elliot T. Ryser, Ph.D., National Food Safety and Toxicology Center,
Michigan State University
-- A novel approach to investigate internalization of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce and spinach
Manan Sharma, Ph.D., Food Technology and Safety Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, USDA-Agricultural Research Service -- Sanitization of leafy vegetables by integrating gaseous ozone treatment into produce processes Ahmed Yousef, Ph.D., Dept. of Microbiology, Ohio State University


TK: Interesting mix of research topics, including a study on composting and a couple on internalization of pathogens. The study on insects in intriguing as well, with respected Michael Doyle of Georgia investigating that topic.