Source: MICHIGAN STATE UNIV submitted to NRP
SUSTAINABLE, SYSTEMS-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR ENSURING LOW-MOISTURE FOOD SAFETY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1023194
Grant No.
2020-68012-31822
Cumulative Award Amt.
$9,800,000.00
Proposal No.
2019-08295
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2020
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2026
Grant Year
2020
Program Code
[A9201]- Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
BIOSYSTEMS AG EGR
Non Technical Summary
Pathogenic bacteria in low-moisture foods is a significant and increasing problem, in terms of both public health and economic impacts on the U.S. food system. Salmonella has been linked to nationwide outbreaks and recalls involving a broad range of products, including almonds, black pepper, hazelnuts, peanut products, pistachios, pet food, soy products, and breakfast cereal. Additionally, pathogenic Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes are increasingly implicated in outbreaks and/or recalls linked to low-moisture foods, including nut products and wheat flour. A single salmonellosis outbreak linked to peanut products cost the industry ~$1 billion, and our estimate of the associated health burden was ~$200 million. Overall, low-moisture food recalls in the last decade caused ~5% mean loss in market capitalization for affected public companies, averaging >$400 million lost per recall event. Small or medium-sized companies generally are unable to survive such events, resulting in bankruptcy and/or closure. Additionally, ongoing implementation of whole-genome sequencing in outbreak investigations by the CDC will increase the number of outbreaks detected. However, the root causes of these failures (scientific, technical, and/or human) often are unidentified. Furthermore, much of the low-moisture food industry is comprised of historical/legacy systems, such as harvesters, dryers, mills, and ovens, that were designed to achieve economic goals, but not necessarily food safety outcomes. This is a large, but unsolved farm-to-consumer problem. Therefore, there is a significant need for a transdisciplinary, systems-based approach to better protect U.S. public health and sustainability of industry operations. In our approach to this problem, our system is defined as harvest-to-consumption for low-moisture foods. In sustainability terms, this project addresses workforce training and public health impacts (people), energy use and environmental impacts of pathogen control solutions (planet), and risk-informed cost-benefit analyses of changes in the low-moisture food system (profit).Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to accelerate the adoption of a sustainable food safety culture in commodity-based low-moisture food systems (via an integrated, transdisciplinary, systems-based approach, with interconnected and parallel research, extension, and education activities). Research, outreach, and education activities will be highly integrated, outcomes-focused, and stakeholder-engaged (including a Stakeholder Advisory Group and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Team), and subject to systematic assessment. Research and outreach activities will encompass risk, economic, and sustainability analyses, food safety culture assessments, pathogen control solutions, and multiple workshops, webinars, and resources supporting systems-based food safety improvements. Education activities will entail novel course and content development for both associate- (worker) and graduate-level (scientific/technical) learning. Overall, this project will reduce foodborne illnesses, and associated recalls, linked to low-moisture foods, thereby improving the protection of public health and sustainability of industry operations of all scales.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
50%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7125010110010%
7125010202010%
7125010301010%
7124010202010%
7124010301010%
6025010110010%
6025010202010%
6025010301010%
6024010202010%
6024010301010%
Knowledge Area
602 - Business Management, Finance, and Taxation; 712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
4010 - Bacteria; 5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1100 - Bacteriology; 3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to accelerate the adoption of a sustainable food safety culture in commodity-based low-moisture food systems (via an integrated, transdisciplinary, systems-based approach, with interconnected and parallel research, extension, and education activities). The long-term objective is to reduce foodborne illnesses, and associated product recalls, linked to low-moisture foods, thereby improving the protection of public health and the economic health of entities of all scales within this industry. In that context, the specific task objectives (integrated and clustered by four unifying Themes) are:Theme 1: Human factors (health, consumers, economics, and culture):1. Quantify public health and economic impacts of illnesses linked to low-moisture foods.2. Evaluate consumers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to low-moisture food safety, and develop and test intervention/extension/outreach programs and strategies.3. Conduct economic analyses examining the influence of market forces, regulatory changes, and novel technologies on industry stakeholders' food safety behaviors.4. Assess barriers to adopting a food safety culture in the low-moisture food industry (especially for small and very small companies).Theme 2: Pathogen behavior and control:5. Characterize and model pathogen persistence, propagation, transfer, survival, and inactivation through the entire low-moisture food system (harvest-to-consumer).6. Develop improved design standards and novel technologies for hygienic design and sanitation of low-moisture food handling and processing equipment.7. Develop engineering tools and extension resources supporting small and very small companies in implementing measurement systems for critical process factors.Theme 3: Personnel development and decision-support systems (extension and education):8. Develop and evaluate multi-level extension/outreach programs and resources spanning the cultural, technical, scientific, regulatory, and economic domains for industry personnel.9. Develop, implement, and assess formal educational courses in low-moisture food safety systems at the associate-degree (workforce) and graduate (scientific/technical) levels, and involve young professionals in project workshops to expand knowledge and networks.10. Develop and test decision-support tools to enhance industry adoption of optimal food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system. Theme 4: Integrated risk and sustainability analyses: 11. Conduct risk analyses that uniquely integrate and link quantitative measures for probability of illnesses, communication efficacy, and management impacts for low-moisture food systems.12. Conduct sustainability analyses of current and alternative/novel food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system.
Project Methods
EffortsThe overall project plan is systems-based, integrated, transdisciplinary, and designed to achieve sustainable solutions. The system for this project is defined as harvest-to-consumption, with tree nuts (almonds), cereal products (wheat flour), and dried fruit (apple) products as representative case-study sectors. Each of the four project Themes is cross-functional, encompassing research, extension, and education components. In addition to core extension and education activities in Obj. 8-9, the project is truly integrated, as outreach and training activities also are embedded in other objectives (e.g., Obj. 2, 7, 10). The transdisciplinary nature of the project is ensured by the unique backgrounds of the team and the project plan, with the Theme Teams constructed to ensure that engineers, microbiologists, and social scientists are working together (rather than in disciplinary sub-teams) to achieve novel and holistic solutions.Objective 1 will entail (1) quantitative risk assessments, and (2) economic characterization of health risks.Objective 2 will entail: (1) nationwide consumer surveys to assess consumers' knowledge, attitude, and behavior for low-moisture food handling, (2) focus groups and direct assessments of the efficacy of food safety messages and warning labels, and (3) an evaluation of the impact social media and role-model-based consumer communications on food safety perceptions and behaviors.Objective 3 will entail: (1) quantitative analyses of the impact that food safety events have on the low-moisture food industry economic performance, and (2) market analyses and surveys to identify factors affecting industry adoption of various food safety controls.Objective 4 will entail: (1) semi-structured interview across multiple sectors of the low-moisture food industry, to elucidate barriers to food safety culture and system changes, and (2) development of an integrative model of the multiple factors that affect industry decisions to adopt a food safety culture, including perception of economic benefits, economic barriers, economies of scale, and training requirements.Objective 5 will entail: (1) interviews, onsite observations, and environmental sampling to identify points of potential increased risk, and to characterize system input/outputs to inform subsequent risk and sustainability analyses, (2) and experimental pathogen fate studies for multiple stages of the low-moisture food system.Objective 6 will entail: (1) direct collaboration with industry stakeholder in defining principles and standards for dry cleaning and sanitation, (2) pathogen-inoculated challenge studies to quantify efficacy of alternative cleaning/sanitation methods, (3) development of improved sanitary design standards, (4) development and statistical validation of environmental monitoring programs for our case study industries, and (5) development of a decision-support tool for data-driven strategies for establishing appropriate methods to validate and verify dry sanitation systems.Objective 7 will entail: (1) in-plant trials to evaluate high-temperature humidity sensor systems, and (2) development of standard validation protocols with emphasis on delivering training resources to small and very-small companies that lack in-house resources in the area of high-temperature humidity monitoring or control.Objective 8 will entail the development, delivery, and assessment of training and extension programs for the target audiences, including workshops, webinars, extension publications, and field days.Objective 9 will entail the development, implementation, and assessment of formal educational resources targeting: (1) associate-degree level programs, and (2) graduate-level courses in food systems, safety, and sustainability. Additionally, in-project professional development webinars (approximately two per year) will be developed and offered for students working on the project, in areas including project management, data integrity and management, diversity/equity/inclusion, adult learning, and undergraduate pedagogy.Objective 10 will entail the development and testing of a decision-support tool for evaluation of alternative food safety interventions at various points in the low-moisture food system.Objective 11 will entail an integrated, systems-based approach towards addressing bacterial pathogens in low-moisture foods, linked to results from Obj. 1 and 3. Unlike many previous efforts, we will integrate risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication into a single model for assessing the marginal effects of multiple food safety interventions.Objective 12 will entail the development and application of a sustainability analysis framework to alternative food safety intervention for low-moisture food systems.EvaluationThe evaluation plan is designed to: (1) ensure accountability, (2) aid ongoing program management, and (3) improve project outcomes, which is particularly critical for complex projects. Program evaluation will be directed by Dr. L. McGowen at NCSU. We will assess the extent to which our research, extension, and education outputs, outcomes, and impacts are achieved. Early-stage evaluation will focus on monitoring and formative evaluation. The central evaluation questions at this stage will be: Have proposed resources and activities been implemented with fidelity and in a timely fashion? Should any changes to the implementation plan be made? Project task assignments, program records, and participant observation will be used to assess whether key activities are implemented as intended. During years 2-3, the emphasis will shift to output/outcome evaluation. The central evaluation questions at this stage will be: Has the project produced the outputs in the work plan for the 12 objectives? What changes should be considered to improve performance? Structured and quantitative methods (e.g., questionnaires, bibliometric analyses, social network analyses) will be used to assess the extent to which the outcomes specified in our Logic Model have been produced. Particularly noteworthy outcomes (e.g., IP created, new products or processes) will be documented in more detail by follow-up interviews. In the latter stages of the project, the emphasis will shift to outcome/impact evaluation. The central evaluation questions at this stage will be: Is there evidence the project has begun to produce the impacts in the Logic Model? What changes should be considered to improve performance? Quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g., interviews with companies, students, and end users), with appropriate controls, will be used to assess the effectiveness of the research, educational, and extension activities. The evaluation team will build on assessment instruments and protocols they have developed for other large-scale center initiatives and customize them based on project goals and industrial and regional context. Evaluation update reports will be provided annually.

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our key stakeholders for this project are: (1) low-moisture food commodity handlers, (2) low-moisture food processors, (3) food retailers, (4) processing equipment suppliers, (5) students in the diverse disciplines involved in the project, (6) food consumers, and (7) food safety regulators, and (8) USDA-NIFA (as the principal investor in this project). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The grant has provided educational opportunities for students and postdocs funded on the grant, for students enrolled in a newly implemented course on sustainable food systems, and for food safety professionals participating in meetings and workshops hosted by the project team. In terms of grant-funded trainees, CLMFS has trained 39 students and postdocs to date, with 22 active across eight organizations this period. Trainees engage in all four CLMFS themes, with 27% participating in more than one. Co-authorship reflects both research engagement and professional growth, with trainees featured in 71% of project publications. Likewise, 92% of former CLMFS trainees and 68% of current trainees have co-authored a CLMFS publication. The 2023 IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Taskforce Meeting, organized by the CLMFS team, brought together key stakeholders to share research updates, gather feedback, network, and showcase student work in low-moisture food safety. At least 70% of respondents rated all sessions as very to extremely effective, with the roundtable panel and opportunities for discussion creating the most value. Participants largely agreed they learned new information that could be applied in their work and made valuable networking connections. Overall, feedback indicated the meeting was a productive professional development and stakeholder engagement opportunity. Likewise, the 2024 IAFP Workshop on validating pasteurization processes for low-water activity foods, led by the CLMFS team, focused on sharing industry research, best practices, and regulatory insights on pathogen control. Results of the workshop evaluation indicated that the workshop sessions were highly effective, especially those on FDA regulatory considerations, process control validation, and hands-on case studies. Participants expressed moderate to high confidence in the knowledge gained, particularly regarding the importance of pathogen control, considerations for challenge studies, and standard operating procedures. Respondents found the event valuable for building knowledge, gaining resources, and making connections that they plan to apply in selecting, designing, and evaluating validation processes for their organizations' current and future operations. Overall satisfaction was high, with participants finding the workshop valuable and a good use of their time. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results are published in a wide variety of peer-reviewed scientific journals, with an emphasis on matching the type of work to the field of interest. Our team maintains a substantial presence at the annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection, disseminating results through posters, technical presentations, symposia, roundtables, professional development groups, and workshops. Our team has also maintained a presence at Society of Risk Analysis meetings, where we have been sharing our outputs related to risk estimation and decision support tools. This past year has also included presentations at the Institute of Food Technologists and Conference of Food Engineering conferences. Our team maintains an online presence with virtual seminars, a project webpage (lowmoisture.msu.edu), and social media outlets (Instagram and Tiktok using the handle @the_food_gaurdian, and Facebook and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/center-for-low-moisture-food-safety/). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Entering the final portion of this grant, our team is emphasizing closing knowledge gaps identified by our prior research and by our recent publication identifying critical industry food safety needs. In addition to the planned project objectives, we plan on incorporating additional initiatives via "rapid response mini-projects." These projects target gaps/opportunities identified by co-PDs and our Stakeholder Advisory Group and will involve extending project funds to experts outside the project team. Up to five projects will be supported that leverage outside expertise to complement our project's overall goal of accelerating the adoption of a sustainable food safety culture and practices in commodity-based low-moisture food systems. THEME 1: The next year will involve working closely with industry stakeholders (e.g., The Almond Board of California) to understand how successful food safety cultures evolve and are implemented. Research will also include evaluating actions taken by companies in response to food safety events (investment in food safety controls, investment in food safety culture, resilience). We will continue our contribution to important food safety databases tracking foodborne illness events and cost estimates. THEME 2: Over the next year, we will target research that would most effectively advance the industry-readiness of our overall project outcomes. For almonds, as the most comprehensively researched food our project focused on, we will be working directly with the Almond Board of California to address gaps for the development of updated validation guidelines. This work will also enable us to extend our expertise to improve resources supporting all tree nut processes. For apples and wheat, our research is shifting to generating information that directly supports the validation of preventive controls. This includes identifying suitable surrogates for wheat tempering and apple drying and developing the resources necessary for implementing these findings in industry processes. This also includes pooling the significant body of thermal inactivation data that has been collected to work on development and pilot-scale validation of a Salmonella inactivation predictive model. In wheat products, we will be investigating desiccation tolerance amongst a genetically diverse set of Salmonella strains to help identify strains of most concern. With the standardized methodologies established by our Theme 2 cleaning/sanitation researchers, we will expand our investigation of different pathogen control strategies. We are coordinating with other cleaning/sanitation researchers and industry leaders, as well as performing a comprehensive literature review on existing cleaning/sanitation practices, to maximize the impact of this research component in the final stretch of the project. THEME 3: Our team will continue our annual reoccurring activities (Low Moisture Task Force meeting, consumer food safety education summer school, annual stakeholder meeting). We are organizing an IAFP symposium on accessing and improving food safety culture in the food industry. Our team will continue our work with the Almond Board of California to revise guideline documents (e.g., blanching and roasting process validations). Lastly, web-based formal education resources for workforce and two-year post-secondary programs will be finalized and tested. THEME 4: With the recent completion of sustainability analyses for each of the three representative commodities (almonds, dried apples, and wheat flour), we will work across other Themes to inform their work and continue to integrate new information, refining different aspects of the sustainability analyses. Work with Theme 1 will improve how industry behaviors are integrated into overall systems sustainability and risk models. Results being generated by Theme 2 will improve the integration of different preventive controls or sanitation/cleaning technologies into life-cycle analyses and risk models. Overall, integration of sustainability and food safety risk models will be one of the significant, unique contributions of these collaborative efforts. Lastly, all the above results will inform final development and field testing of a decision-support tool for justifying economic investments in food safety technologies, with the goal of supporting food safety professionals in making the case for economic investments in food safety technologies, justified by quantifying the economic value of reducing the risk of recalls and outbreaks. ASSESSMENT: As we move into Year 5, the evaluation will place greater emphasis on summative assessments across the project's goals. In the research domain, we plan to employ social network analysis (SNA) to visualize and quantify the network connections established through the grant, comparing these to Year 1 data to measure network growth. We will also update our bibliometric and co-authorship analysis to assess the overall impact of the scholarly outputs produced. In the educational domain, we aim to enhance our alumni evaluation by surveying graduates about how their CLMFS training has influenced their jobs and professional achievements since graduation. Additionally, we will survey current trainees regarding the impact of CLMFS training on their skill development and career aspirations. Our educational evaluation will also include a follow-up survey for participants of the 2024 IAFP Workshop, organized by the project team. This survey will assess the extent to which the knowledge gains reported in the post-workshop survey were implemented in the workplace and identify any barriers to that implementation. Lastly, in the extension domain, we will survey SAG members to evaluate the impact of their participation in CLMFS and benefits they have realized as a result.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the past year, our team has made significant progress towards realizing our overarching goals. Our objectives that have been previously underrepresented in these reports now have important outputs (e.g., dry sanitation and post-secondary education). Areas where we have substantial outputs to date are developing industry-relevant outcomes (e.g., improvement of food safety culture and improvement of validation tools). The following sections highlight example accomplishments in each of our four Theme areas and a summary of the detailed and rigorous assessment of overall project activities, stakeholder engagement, and impact. THEME 1: We reached a significant milestone with the publication of a study entitled "Food safety research and extension needs for the U.S. low-moisture food industry." In this study, major barriers to food safety culture and education were identified using data collected from two surveys of various low-moisture food safety experts. The results provide guidance for future priority work in academia, the food industry, and regulatory agencies to improve the adoption of effective food safety culture. Our efforts to evaluate food safety culture and/or burden of foodborne illness for specific food commodities continued throughout the past year, which include almonds and dried fruit. Work has also begun on assessing industry response and resilience to food safety events. THEME 2: We have completed various tasks that contribute to each of the objectives established for this Theme. For Obj. 5, we have examined the impact of several postharvest activities on the survival of pathogens. For almonds and wheat berries, we identified optimal experimental methodologies for generating robust and reproducible inoculated batches. For wheat berries, this enabled us to examine the impact of different tempering procedures (i.e., solutions containing industry-relevant antimicrobial agents). For almonds, the research on refined methodologies contributed directly to ongoing updates of industry validation guidelines. Over the past year, weexamined the impact of different hurdle technologies (steam and peroxyacetic acid) on Listeria stability on food contact surfaces relevant to apple processing environments. Multiple institutions have coordinated research efforts to characterize Salmonella inactivation kinetics in apple drying processes, resulting in a comprehensive evaluation of various factors relevant to fruit drying processes. Significant milestones for Obj. 6 (cleaning/sanitation standards) and Obj. 7 (engineering tools for measuring critical factors) were reached. Standard methodological practices for evaluating the efficacy of cleaning/sanitation technologies were established. As a result, we established the difference between "visibly" and "quantifiably" clean surfaces and the factors (treatment parameters, humidity, attachment forces) that contributed to attainment of either state. Publications are being drafted examining the impact of vacuum, infrared, and UV treatments in dry cleaning/sanitation systems. Our evaluation of humidity sensors at elevated temperatures was completed, and we are in the process of drafting industry guidance about humidity measurement in high-temperature processes. THEME 3: This past year, we have been engaging stakeholders at various conferences and at events led by members of our team. Most notably, at this year's International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Annual Meeting, our team led a pre-conference, two-day workshop on validating low-moisture food preventive controls (25 attendees that were predominantly industry members), organized/presented a symposium on surrogates for the validation of preventive controls, and organized/moderated a roundtable discussion on Cronobacter spp. in dry food systems. Our team continued our extension and engagement activities with the consumer food safety education summer school and IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Task Force meeting. We also have been working closely with the Almond Board of California to update their guidelines documents for improved validation practices. This past year included the first offering of a graduate-level course (Sustainable Food Energy and Water Systems) that directly resulted from this grant. THEME 4: Sustainability analyses for all three representative commodities (almonds, dried apples, and wheat flour) were completed and are being drafted into manuscripts with expected publication later this fall or early spring 2025. This work will be instrumental in contextualizing the impact of various food safety intervention strategies still being evaluated by our team beyond the relative utility for reducing foodborne pathogen risk. A draft decision support tool, to quantify the value of risk reduction as economic justification for food safety technology investments was completed, and the framework was presented in both the aforementioned workshop and an international conference. ASSESSMENT: Over the last four years, our Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety (CLMFS) has achieved several important milestones, and assessments based on several surveys of internal participants, workshop attendees, and other external stakeholders showed: Collaboration remains a key strength of the CLMFS team, with respondents expressing high satisfaction regarding its impact on participants and joint efforts. Nearly all project publications (96%) demonstrate team science collaboration, encompassing multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, cross-sector (industry, academia, government), and international partnerships among project teams, stakeholder organizations, and external collaborators. The team has published 167 scholarly articles authored by 196 unique co-authors from 57 organizations across 20 disciplines, which have received over 497 citations (resulting in a project h-index = 12). On average, these articles appear in journals with impact factors nearly double the median for their fields. In the latest reporting period, the average citations per publication doubled, and the project's h-index increased by five points. During this reporting period, the project team engaged significantly with industry and government stakeholders in low-moisture food safety. They co-authored publications with 17 government and 27 industry collaborators, including four from stakeholder advisory board member organizations. Additionally, they hosted the 2023 IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Taskforce Meeting and a 2024 IAFP Workshop, where attendees reported that these opportunities were valuable and impactful for their careers. Over the past four years, CLMFS has trained 39 students and postdocs, with 22 participating in the current reporting period. To date, 25 alumni have completed degrees or postdoctoral fellowships. Among them, four are pursuing further education, two are in postdoc roles, three are research scientists, three are faculty members, two work in government, and eight are in industry. Notably, 52% of CLMFS alumni are now employed at affiliated organizations, including UC Davis, MSU, Purdue, WSU, FDA, Buhler, and General Mills. The Year 4 evaluation results indicate that the project team is advancing in their convergent research, education, and extension activities. The Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety is producing impactful team science research and has made significant strides in engaging with external stakeholders. These connections enhance research, support technology development, and facilitate extension efforts, while also preparing the next generation of food safety professionals. Trainees are acquiring valuable skills and professional networks that prepare them for careers in low-moisture food safety.

Publications

  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Chen, H., Anderson, N.M., Feng, Y., Grasso-Kelley, E.M., Harris, L.J., Marks, B.P., McGowen, L., Scharff, R.L., Subbiah, J., Tang, J., and F. Wu. 2024. Food safety research and extension needs for the U.S. low-moisture food industry. Journal of Food Protection. 100358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2024.100358
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Chen, H., Kontor-Manu, E., Zhu, H., Cheng, G., & Feng, Y. 2024. Evaluation of the handling practices and risk perceptions of dried wood ear mushrooms in asian restaurants in the United States. Journal of Food Protection, 87(1), 100198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2023.100198
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Archila-Godinez JC, Chen H, Cheng G, Manjrekar SS, Feng Y. 2024. Exploring how YouTube videos demonstrating preparation of dried wood ear mushrooms could pose food safety risks: a case study. British Food Journal, 126(4) 1654-1681. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2023-0609
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Hildebrandt IM, Marks BP. 2024. Improving the utility of surrogates intended for foodborne pathogen preventive control validations. Current Opinion in Food Science. 57:101153 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101153
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Hildebrandt IM, Riddell LM, Hall NO, James MK, Marks BP. 2024. Demonstration of Inappropriate Validation Method for a Cracker Baking Process Using Predictive Modeling. Journal of Food Protection. 87, 100298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2024.100298
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Hua Z, Thapa BB, Younce F, Tang J, Zhu MJ. 2024. Impacts of water activity on survival of Listeria innocua and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 in almonds during steam treatments. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 413 110592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2024.110592
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Hua, Z., Zhu MJ. 2024. Innovative hurdle strategies for Listeria control on food-contact surfaces: A peroxyacetic acid -steam approach. Foods, 13: 248. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13162481
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Berglund, Z., Kontor-Manu, E., Jacundino, S. B., & Feng, Y. (2024). Random forest models of food safety behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 113. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2024.2354441
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Louvau, H. S., H. Wang, M. M. Shaposhnikov, and L. J. Harris. 2024. Behavior of Salmonella during preparation of a fermented cashew cheese analog. Journal of Food Protection. 87(8):100311 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2024.100311
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Low M, Feng Y. 2024. Content analysis of food safety information in apple drying recipes from youtube, blogs, cookbooks, and extension materials. Foods. 13(5) 778. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13050778
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Randriamiarintsoa, N., Ryser, E. T., & Marks, B. P. (2024). Effect of Air Temperature and Velocity on Listeria monocytogenes Inactivation during Drying of Apple Slices. Journal of Food Protection, 100253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2024.100253
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Sun S, Yang R, Xie Y, Zhu MJ, Sablani S, Tang, J. 2024. The effect of water activity on thermal resistance of Salmonella in chocolate products with different fat contents. Food Control, 162 110443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110443
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Swinehart, M. R., & Feng, Y. (2023). US Consumers Tree Nut Food Safety Knowledge, Perceptions, and Handling Practices across Demographic Groups. Foods, 12(23), 4289. 10.3390/foods12234289
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Swinehart, M., Harris, L. J., Louvau, H., & Feng, Y. (2024). Food Safety Implications of Online Recipes for Preparing Soaked Nuts and Nut-Based Dairy Analogs. Food Protection Trends, 44(1). 10.4315/FPT-23-016
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Zhang S, Yang R, Zhou X, Feng Y, Tang J. 2024. Salmonella control for dried apple cubes. Food Control, 162 110428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110428
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Autumn Stoll. 2024. M.S., Purdue. Challenges and Opportunities for Small-Scale Processors and Growers from Different Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.25394/PGS.26366821.v1
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ian Hildebrandt. 2024. Ph.D., Michigan State University. Improving the utility of Salmonella thermal inactivation research for the validation of low moisture foods preventive controls. https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/v6hj-hc75
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Ian Klug. 2023. M.S., Michigan State University. Elucidating critical factors for practical dry-cleaning applications on low-moisture food contact surfaces https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/j1b4-q933
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Hongye Wang, Linda J. Harris. 2024. Evaluation of preparation steps used to inoculate almonds with Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 (Abstract P1-173). Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 15, 2024.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kasey Nelson. 2024. M.S., Michigan State University. Evaluating the efficacy of radiative dry sanitation techniques on Salmonella-inoculated stainless steel surfaces post visible cleaning. https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/g85g-bz71
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Zachary Berglund. 2023. M.S., Purdue. Exploratory data analysis of consumer food safety behaviors. https://doi.org/10.25394/PGS.22687294.v1
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Carly Gomez. 2023. Ph.D., Michigan State University. Risk modeling, decision analysis, and risk communication for listeriosis in cancer patients who consume fresh salad. https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/md2h-8m02
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Rajesh Dangal, Tejaswi Boyapati, Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, Juming Tang, Ren Yang. 2024. Measuring the thermal death kinetics of Salmonella Enteritidis and Enterococcus faecium in finish drying conditions at constant temperatures and humidities. Poster presentation at the annual Conference of Food Engineering meeting. Seattle, WA. August 26, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Zi Hua. 2024. Inactivation of Listeria biofilms by hurdle treatments of peroxyacetic acid and saturated steam. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 13, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Xiyang Liu, Elizabeth M. Grasso-Kelley, Alvin Lee, and Nathan M. Anderson. 2024. Factors Affecting Salmonella Inactivation on Apples During Hot Air Drying. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 16, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Xiyang Liu, Elizabeth M. Grasso-Kelley, Alvin Lee, Nathan M. Anderson. 2024. Isothermal Inactivation Kinetics of Salmonella Montevideo on Partially Dried Apple Cubes. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 16, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Yawei Lin. 2024. Impact of Inoculum Growth Method on Survival of Salmonella and Shiga-Toxin Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) during Wheat Tempering. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 17, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mengqian Hang. 2024. The Survival of Listeria monocytogenes on Dried Gala Apple: Influence of Water Activity, Storage Temperature. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 13, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ren Yang, Shuang Zhang, Juming Tang. 2024. Mathematical modeling of Salmonella inactivation in humidity-controlled apple drying process. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 16, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ian Klug, Bradley Marks, Teresa Bergholz, Sanghyup Jeong. 2024. Factors Affecting the Adhesion of Flour Particles to Stainless Steel Surfaces and Vacuum Dry- Cleaning. Technical presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. July 15, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Xiaoye Shen. 2024. Serotype-specific persistence of Listeria monocytogenes on Granny Smith apples. Poster presentation at the Institute of Food Technologist. Chicago, IL. July 13, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kasey Nelson, Ian Klug, Michael James, Teresa M. Bergholz, Bradley Marks, Sanghyup Jeong. 2024. UV-C Dry Sanitation of Visibly-Cleaned Salmonella-Inoculated Stainless Steel Surfaces. Technical presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. July 15, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Han Chen Tim Birmingham, Guangwei Huang, Yaohua (Betty) Feng. 2024. Improving User Experiences (UX) with Food Safety Materials Developed by Agricultural Commodity Group: A Case Study of the Almond Industry. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 15, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Carly Gomez. 2024. A Decision-Support Tool for Food Safety Technology Investments. Poster presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. Long Beach, CA. July 17, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Teresa Bergholz. 2024. Impacts of survival kinetics and stress responses on pathogens in food systems. Symposium speaker at ASM Microbe conference. Atlanta, GA. June 15, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ren Yang, Juming Tang. 2024. Developing thermal control of Salmonella in food drying and roasting processes using predictive models. Symposium speaker at Conference of Food Engineering. Seattle, WA. August 26, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ian Hildebrandt. 2024. Bridging the Gap between Research and Industry: Improving the Utilization of Surrogates for Validating Preventive Controls. Symposium presentation at the annual International Association for Food Protection meeting. July 17, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Carly Gomez. 2023. Decision Support for Economic Valuation of Food Safety Risk Reduction. Symposium speaker at the Society for Risk Analysis annual meeting. December 11, 2023.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Symposium: The Past, Present, and Future of Surrogates for Validating Food Safety Controls. Organized by Ian Hildebrandt, included speakers Tim Birmingham, Ian Hildebrandt, Abigail Snyder. International Association for Food Protection annual meeting. July 17, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Workshop: Selecting and Validating Pathogen Reduction Processes for Low-Moisture Foods and Ingredients. Included Bradley Marks, Ian Hildebrandt, Elizabeth Kelley-Grasso, Teresa Bergholz, Nathan Anderson, Juliany Rivera Ca?o, Carly Gomez, Betty Feng. International Association for Food Protection annual meeting. July 12-13, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Task Force Meeting, partially organized by Nathan Anderson. Included speakers Erdogan Ceylan, Juliany Rivera Calo, Carly Gomez, Brian Schaneberg, Xiyang Liu, Megan Fay, Joelle Salazar, Ian Klug, Bradley Marks, Ian Hildebrandt. Rosemont, IL. September 3, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Invited speaker Betty Feng at Illinois Institute of Technology. 2024. Human Factor in Food Safety Research: Decode the Decision-Making in Food Handling. Chicago, IL.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Invited speaker Betty Feng at University of Arkansas, Food Science Department. 2024. Responsibility for Food Safety in the Kitchen. Fayetteville, AR.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Invited speaker Betty Feng at Purdue University Industry Associates Spring Meeting. 2024. Eye-tracking in food safety labeling research. West Lafayette, IN.


Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our key stakeholders for this project are: (1) low-moisture food commodity handlers, (2) low-moisture food processors, (3) food retailers, (4) processing equipment suppliers, (5) students in the diverse disciplines involved in the project, (6) food consumers, and (7) food safety regulators, and (8) USDA-NIFA (as the principal investor in this project). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project assessment and evaluation team conducted a survey of students and postdocs participating on the grant to assess their training experience, the culture for inclusion within the Center (CLMFS), and the impact of participating on the grant for their skills and career preparation, to gather their suggestions to improve the training experience going forward. Trainees were invited to respond to the web survey via email (Response rate = 21/22, 95%). Respondents were MS and PhD students supported on the project. To understand the CLMFS training experience, we asked trainees about the kinds of opportunities available to them through the grant, and their participation in those activities. Because trainees on the grant have a wide range of interests and are seeking degrees in a broad range of fields, various training opportunities available through the grant may be more or less relevant to each trainee. Trainees report having participated in a wide range of activities, depending on their interests. All trainees have had the opportunity, and the majority have participated in multi-institutional collaborative research that is engaging, cutting-edge, addressing important societal challenges, and has resulted in opportunities for conference papers and presentations. Participation in training around life cycle analysis, food quality, and testing protocols for challenge studies was less common, with less than half of respondents reporting that they participated in these activities. The Center may have an opportunity to leverage its FDA participants to increase interactions with government representatives, as 31% of trainee respondents reported that they had not yet had that opportunity through the grant. When asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the training opportunities in which they had participated, respondents were quite to very satisfied with almost all of them. Respondents reported the highest levels of satisfaction with opportunities to interact with other researchers on the grant, opportunities to develop or deliver educational and extension materials or programs, and opportunities to pursue research that addresses real-world problems. In order to support engagement and inclusion within the Center, the evaluation team asked trainees about the culture for inclusion within CLMFS. Overall, participants tended to agree to strongly agree that the culture within CLMFS (Mean = 4.65/5.00) was as inclusive as their home universities (Mean = 4.64/5.00). Respondents felt that CLMFS was strongest in terms of being supportive of differing ideas, providing opportunities for participants to work with colleagues from different demographic backgrounds, and treating participants equitably. Overall, CLMFS trainees are very satisfied with the CLMFS-related training they have received (Mean = 4.92/5.00; SD = 0.28). When asked to comment on the most valuable aspects of their training experience so far, respondents mentioned the opportunity to participate in a large-scale team science project, focused on addressing an important societal challenge, and the impact those experiences have had on their professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results are published in a wide variety of peer-reviewed scientific journals, with an emphasis on matching the type of work to the field of interest. Our team maintains a substantial presence at the annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection, disseminating results though posters, technical presentations, symposia, roundtables, professional development groups, and workshops. Our team is becoming increasingly involved in the annual Society of Risk Analysis meetings, having organized a symposium related to project topics this past year. Our team maintains an online presence with virtual seminars, a project webpage (lowmoisture.msu.edu), and social media outlets (Instagram and Tiktok using the handle @the_food_gaurdian). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?At the mid-point of the project, the Management Team has focused on identifying gaps or opportunities that progress-to-date has not yet addressed, and therefore prioritizing allocation of resources toward those areas of need, based heavily upon feedback and input from our Stakeholder Advisory Group. THEME 1: While continuing to focus on advancing our understanding of consumer understanding of low-moisture food safety issues, Theme 1 will also work on advancing knowledge of the economic factors associated with food safety decisions, in order to inform decision support tools under development (Theme 3). THEME 2: A priority area within Theme 2, based on our assessment of project progress and pressing stakeholder needs, will be development of data, tools, and guidance on low-moisture food system cleaning and sanitation. Specifically, we will continue with challenge studies testing the efficacy of existing sanitation tools. We also will work on documenting and advancing sanitary equipment design standards specific to low-moisture systems, and on validating clean-in-place (CIP) and clean-out-of-place (COP) systems for low-moisture processing equipment. Lastly, the goal is to develop improved sanitary design standards based on the outcomes of those studies, and field test those with key stakeholders. Additionally, Theme 2 will continue to work on advancing our understanding of pathogen fate within low-moisture food handling and processing systems, including survival during freeze-thaw cycles during storage and the potential for pathogen transfer from contaminated to uncontaminated wheat kernels during tempering processes. Lastly, our ongoing cross-institutional collaboration on pathogen fate during apple drying processes will continue, with focus on developing and testing pathogen inactivation models that are applicable and valid for the dynamic moisture environment in fruit drying processes. THEME 3: In the outreach/extension domain, Theme 3 will work on developing consumer fact sheets for nut-based cheeses, updating the Almond Board of California (ABC) guidelines for validating pathogen control processes, and developing and presenting a webinar targeted at Process Authorities (PA) who are responsible for conducting process validations in industry. Lastly, a recently developed, risk-based, economic decision-support tool for investing in food safety technologies will be field-tested for the specific case study of wheat flour, in terms of usability and impact on the industry. THEME 4: Theme 4 will focus on completing the life-cycle analyses (LCA) for apple drying and alternative approaches to almond harvest. ASSESSMENT: In year 4, the evaluation efforts will focus more heavily on outcome and impact evaluation in each of the project domains.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? As the project (the Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety) has progressed past the mid-point this year, so has our focus, from foundational work to the activities that are leading toward the ultimate realization of our overall goal. Research that was previously considered new or novel has become increasingly complex as we are developing more industry- and policy-ready information, including significant engagement of key stakeholders. The following sections highlight example accomplishments in each of our four Theme areas and a summary of the detailed and rigorous assessment of overall project activities, stakeholder engagement, and impact. THEME 1: Theme 1 continued their work on studying the human factors of food safety, from micro- to macro-social scales. This included studying consumer behaviors on home-scale nut/flour handling and production of nut cheeses. While this work focused on understanding and promoting proper consumer-scale food safety practices, the results of this work also will enable food manufacturers to better communicate food safety practices, thus more effectively reducing the potential microbial safety risks of their products. Our work has also included estimating foodborne disease burdens of flour and flour-based foods, which is informing both the flour industry and regulatory agencies, as they each play a role in finding sustainable solutions for product safety. THEME 2: Our Theme 2 work continues to expand the state of knowledge for pathogen fate in each of our representative food products (almonds, apples, and wheat flour). One emerging application area has led to a study of Salmonella kinetics during the formation of nut cheeses. We also have completed a unique quantitative meta-analysis of industry approaches to utilizing bacterial surrogates for validating almond pasteurization systems, which is directly impacting industry guidelines that are currently being updated. Our team also has been collaborating across institutions to rapidly advance the understanding of Salmonella inactivation during dehydration of apples. This research encompasses fundamental modeling of Salmonella inactivation during heat assisted dehydration, development of industry-ready recommendations using pilot-scale processes, evaluation of humidity sensing and control strategies, and identification of process controls for home-scale dehydration systems. Our Theme 2 research now includes investigating the fundamentals of dry cleaning and sanitation, a priority need in industry, where initial work has quantified the significant impact of relative humidity on food particle attachment. THEME 3: Our team continued our commitment to engaging food safety professionals and industry stakeholders with several virtual and in-person extension events. We engaged our projects stakeholders at our Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety annual meeting, consisting of 3-day, product-centric, discussions that focused on young professional (graduate students and post-docs) engagement with our industry stakeholders. We were organizing partners in several in-person events with audiences comprised of industry, academic, and government participants, including the Institute of Food Safety and Health (IFSH) Low-Moisture Food Safety Task Force meeting, which focused on flours and powdered infant formula (an urgent low-moisture food safety challenge) and an International Association of Food Protection pre-meeting workshop on "Demystifying Dry Cleaning & Sanitizing." Members of our group promoted low-moisture food safety as part of larger events, including a consumer food safety summer school (~300 food safety educator participants), outreach engaging ~200 families, and a continual presence on social media platforms using the handle @the_food_guardian. THEME 4: The Theme 4 team has focused on modeling risk and system sustainability, and the intersection of the two. We completed parts of life cycle analyses (LCA) for wheat flour and almond production. Two Kansas-based wheat production facilities were examined as illustrative case studies, which produced wheat-based mill feed and wheat flour. The analysis found that most greenhouse gas emissions in the wheat life cycle resulted from wheat flour production, as opposed to the preceding milling process. Additionally, despite the emission offset from renewable energy generation at both facilities, the climate change footprint of wheat flour (0.88 - 0.92 kg CO2 eq/kg bulk enriched wheat flour) exceeded that of a reference value for maize (0.82 kg CO2 eq/kg of milled maize). The LCA of almond product also included quantifying particulate matter (PM) emissions associated with different off-ground harvesting scenarios and drying technologies, which are an emerging issue in that sector. While the results did not identify a "silver-bullet" technology for reducing greenhouse gas and PM emissions, open-air drying in an orchard-adjacent lot seemed to provide a reasonable tradeoff between the two emissions. Members of our Theme 4 team are also engaging with government entities and risk analysis professionals in translating our developments to practice and policy. ASSESSMENT: Over the last three years, the project (Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety, CLMFS) has achieved several important milestones: They have published 147 scholarly research publications authored by 187 unique co-authors from 56 organizations, across 17 disciplines, which have already been cited over 245 times (project h-index = 9). On average, project journal articles appear in journals with impact factors that are nearly twice the median for other journals in the same disciplinary categories. Nearly all project publications (97%) reflect some form of team science collaboration, including transdisciplinary, multi-institutional, and cross-sector (industry/academia/government) collaborations across project teams, stakeholder organizations, and with external collaborators. The project team has had significant interaction with industry and government stakeholders in the low-moisture food safety field during this reporting period. They hosted the 2022 IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Taskforce Meeting, a 2023 IAFP Roundtable, their 2023 Stakeholder Advisory Board meeting, and several tours of stakeholder facilities. Stakeholders surveyed are eager and willing to continue to engage with the Center through receiving regular email news updates, informal discussions with grant researchers to guide future research, mentoring trainees and research projects occurring on the grant, attending in-person networking events, and hiring grant-trained students and postdocs. The project has trained 35 students and postdocs over the last three years, with 25 participating during the current reporting period. Trainees report that they are getting a variety of important experiences that are having a positive impact on their knowledge and skills and are helping to prepare them for careers in university, government, and industry settings. Overall, CLMFS trainees are very satisfied with their CLMFS-related training. They mentioned how much they value the opportunity to participate in a large-scale team science project, focused on addressing an important societal challenge, and the impact those experiences have had on their professional development. Overall, the year 3 evaluation results provide evidence that the project team is making progress across their convergent research, education, and extension/engagement activities. The Center for Low-Moisture Food Safety is producing highly impactful team science research. Likewise, the project has made considerable progress in connecting and engaging with external stakeholders. These connections help to inform the research, aid in technology development, provide a vehicle/audience for extension, and are an important part of connecting students to future career opportunities.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Low, M., Narvaez-D�vila, K. M., Prado-Jaramillo, A. M.*, & Feng, Y. (2023). Menu Selection on Food Safety among College Students Majoring in Agriculture and Nutrition based on Situational Factors. 2023 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference, March 1-3, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Berglund. Z*, Feng. Y, (2023). A thematic synthesis of virtual food safety training barriers and motivators. The Consumer Food Safety Education Conference Meeting 2023. Consumer Food Safety Education Conference, March 1-3, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Louvau, H., and L. J. Harris. Growth of Salmonella during preparation of a fermented cashew cheese analog. (Technical Session Plant-Based Alternative Products and Produce). Monday, July 17, 2023. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Estrada, E. M., and L. J. Harris. 2023. Growth and biofilm formation ability of Salmonella strains isolated from pistachios. (Abstract P1-231). Monday, July 17, 2023. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Chen, H., Archila-Godinez, J. C., Feng, Y. (2023). Understanding Food handlers Perceptions and Handling Practices of Dried Wood Ear Mushrooms through Content Analysis and Interview. 2023 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference, March 1-3, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Estrada, E. M., and L. J. Harris. Copper-resistance genotypes and phenotypes of Salmonella enterica isolated from California pistachios. (Abstract P1-232). Monday, July 17, 2023. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lieberman, V.M., K. Ihde, and L.J. Harris. 2023. Prevalence, levels, and distribution of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella on raw almond kernels from the 2021 California harvest. (Abstract P1-229). Monday, July 17, 2023. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Swinehart, M & Feng, Y. 2023. U.S. consumers perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes toward tree nut food safety across demographic groups. The Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection, 2023, Toronto, Ontario, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Stoll, A., Kuesten, C., Archila-God�nez, J., Marshall, M., & Feng, Y. (2021). Consumers Willingness to Pay for Produce with a Food Safety Label from Small- and Medium-Sized Farms. The Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection, Toronto, Ontario, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Berglund. Z, Jacundino. S, Scharff. R, Feng. Y (2023) Predictive Modeling of Wheat Flour Safety Recall Behaviors and Recall Awareness. The International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting 2023. Toronto, Ontario, CA[FY1]
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Anderson, N., Farina, B., Holah, J., Kornacki, J., Morantes, G., and Wilger, P. (2023). RT11 - An Ever-Changing Landscape: Can Using Indicator Organisms and Run Time Validation Studies Allow Industry to Demonstrate Process Control While Maintaining Product Safety in Low-Moisture Foods? [roundtable] Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Liu, X., Grasso-Kelley, E., and Anderson, N. (2023). P1-213 - Effect of Temperature and Airflow on Inactivation of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 in Apple Cubes during Hot Air Drying. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lin, Y., Peterson, C., and Bergholz, T.M. (2023) Inoculum Growth Method Impacts the Survival Kinetics of Salmonella and Shiga-Toxin Producing Escherichia coli inoculated onto Wheat Grain. T5-09. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Gurtler, Joshua B., Elizabeth Grasso-Kelley, Xuetong Fan, Tony Jin and Christina Garner. 2023. Inactivation of Desiccation-Resistant Salmonella on Apple Slices following Treatment with Epsilon-Polylysine, Sodium Bisulfate or Peracetic Acid. International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Abstract accepted.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Ian Klug, Bradley Marks, and Sanghyup Jeong. 2023. (P3-244) Quantifying Cleanliness of Food Contact Surfaces Using Conductivity of Total Dissolved Solids. International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-July 19.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Kasey Nelson, Ian Klug, Yawei Lin, Dangkamol Wongthanaroj, Yunwei Chen, Kirk Dolan, Teresa Bergholz, Ian Hildebrandt, Michael James, and Bradley Marks, 2023. Modeling and Optimum Experimental Design of Salmonella Inactivation in Inoculated Wheat Flour. International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Abstract accepted.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Hildebrandt, I.M., B.P. Marks. 2023. Statistical framework for surrogate-based validations of preventive controls and optimal data collection. (Abstract P3-154). Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yang, R., Cartwright, Z., Galloway, M., & Tang, J. (2023) Developing Predictable Thermal Treatments for Control of Salmonella in Low-Moisture Foods Using Kinetic Models That Include Water Activity as a Key Parameter (T5-10). Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Zi Hua, Bhim Bahadur Thapa, Frank Younce, Juming Tang, Mei-Jun Zhu. 2023. Steam inactivation of Listeria innocua and Enterococcus faecium NRRL 2354 in almond kernels as impacted by water activity. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mei-Jun Zhu, Xiaoye Shen, Qian Luo, Yuan Su, Zi Hua, Manoella Mendoza, Hongmei Zhu, To Chiu, Yuanhao Wang, Ines Hanrahan. 2023. Impacts of low-dose continuous gaseous ozone on fates of Listeria innocua on Cosmic Crisp apples during commercial storage. Annual IAFP Meeting 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Narindra Randriamiarintsoa. 2023. Effect of air velocity on Listeria monocytogenes inactivation during apple drying. Annual IFT Meeting 2023, Chicago, Illinois, USA, July 16-19. Accepted
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jessica Bain, Ebenezer Miezah Kwofie, Marty Matlock, Linda Harris, Jeyam Subbiah and Greg Thoma. 2023. Life Cycle Assessment of Almond Processing: Off-ground Harvesting Scenarios. International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Analysis (ICLCASA). Vancouver, Canada, September 24. Abstract accepted.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Husband, S., Lieberman, V., Ihde, K., Harris, L. J. 2022. Prevalence and levels of Salmonella on raw almond kernels from the 2021 California harvest. The Almond Conference, Sacramento, CA. December 7, 2022
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Hildebrandt, I., Scott-McKay, J., Birmingham, T., Marks, B. 2022. The Almond Conference, Sacramento, CA. December 7, 2022
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Felicia Wu. 2022. Food Safety Risks, Disease Burden, and Technological and Behavioral Solutions (symposium). Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Tampa, FL. December, 7 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Rubait Rahman, Robert Scharff, Felicia Wu. 2022. Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in Flour and Flour-Based Food Products from Microbial Pathogens in the United States: Economic Burden. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Tampa, FL. December, 7 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Han Chen, Yaohua Feng. 2022. Do Not Eat Raw Dough  A Case Study of Communicating Food Safety Risk with Consumers. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Tampa, FL. December, 7 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Robert Scharff. 2022. Effect of Foodborne Illness Related Outbreaks and Recalls on Consumption of Low-Moisture Foods. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Tampa, FL. December, 7 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Teresa M. Bergholz. 2022. Resilience of foodborne pathogens in the food supply. New Zealand Microbiological Society annual meeting. Wellington, New Zealand. November 22, 2022.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., R. Scharff, J. Tang, E. Grasso-Kelley, Y Feng. 2022. Food Handling Practices for Apple Drying in Home Kitchens in the United States: A Survey. J. Food Prot. 85:1418-1430.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sun, S., Xie, Y., Yang, R., Zhu, M. J., Sablani, S., & Tang, J. 2022. The influence of temperature and water activity on thermal resistance of Salmonella in milk chocolate. Food Control, 143, 109292.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yang, R., Lombardo, S. P., Conway, W. F., & Tang, J. 2022. Inactivation of Salmonella Enteritidis PT30 on black peppercorns in thermal treatments with controlled relative humidities. Food Research International, 162, 112101.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Davies, C.P., Jurkiw, T., Haendiges, J., Reed, E., Anderson, N., Grasso-Kelley, E., Hoffmann, M., Zheng, J. 2022. Changes in the genomes and methylomes of three Salmonella enterica serovars after long-term storage in ground black pepper. Front. Microbiol.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Ahmad, N.H., Hildebrandt, I.M., Pickens, S.R., Vasquez, S., Jin, Y., Liu, S., Halik, L.A., Tsai, H-.C., Kiat Lau, S., DSouza, R.C., Kumar, S., Subbiah, J., Thippareddi, H., Zhu, M-.J., Tang, J., Anderson, N.M., Grasso-Kelley, E.M., Ryser, E.T., Marks, B.P. 2022. Interlaboratory evaluation of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 as a Salmonella surrogate for validating thermal treatment of multiple low-moisture foods. Journal of Food Protection. 85(11) p 1538 - 1552
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lieberman, V., E. Estrada, M. Swinehart, Y. Feng, and L. J. Harris. 2023. Fate of foodborne pathogens during soaking and drying of walnuts. J. Food Prot. 86 (1):100011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2022.10.007.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jung, J. and L. J. Harris. 2023. Survival of Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli during tempering of wheat berries. Food Control 144:109343.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lin, Y., S. Simsek, and T.M. Bergholz. 2023. Fate of Salmonella and Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli on wheat grain during tempering. Food Microbiology 104194
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yang, R., and Tang, J. 2023. Developing Thermal Control of Salmonella in Low-Moisture Foods Using Predictive Models. Food Safety Magazine .
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lapsley, K. and L. J. Harris. Nov. 2022. Nut pasteurization to ensure food safety: Almond case study. NutFruit Magazine 87(3):23-24.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Sun, S., Xie, Y., Zhou, X., Zhu, M. J., Sablani, S., & Tang, J. (2023). Survival and thermal resistance of Salmonella in chocolate products with different water activities. Food Research International, 172, 113209.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Rahman R, Scharff R, Wu F (2023). Foodborne disease outbreaks in flour and flour-based food products from microbial pathogens in the US, and their economic burden. Risk Analysis, DOI: 10.1111/risa.14132.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Swinehart, M., Harris, L., Anderson, N., Feng, Y. 2023. U.S. Consumer Practices of Homemade Nut-based Dairy Analogs and Soaked Nuts. Journal of Food Protection. 86:100132
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Acuff, J.C., Dickson, J.S., Farber, J.M., Grasso-Kelley, E.M., Hedberg, C., Lee, A., Zhu, M-.J. 2023. Practices and progress: Updates on outbreaks, advances in research, and processing technologies for low-moisture food safety. Journal of Food Protection. 86(1) 100018
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Louvau, H. and L. J. Harris. 2023. Levels and distribution of Salmonella in naturally contaminated cashews. J. Food Prot. 86:100109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2023.100109
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Thomas, M., Berglund, Z., Low, M., Bryan, I., Soewardjono, R., Feng, Y. 2022. Evaluation of Flour Safety Messages on Commercially Available Packages: An Eye-Tracking Study. Foods. 11:2997
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Su, Y., Shen, X., Hua, Z., Zhu, H., Chiu, T., Wan, Y., Mendoza, M., Hanrahan, I., Zhu, M. 2023. Fate of Listeria innocua on wax-coated Fuji apple surfaces under commercial refrigerated air storage. Postharvest Biology and Technology. 198:112236
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shen, X., Su, Y., Hua, Z., Zhu, H., �nl�, G., Ross, C., Mendoza, M., Hanrahan, I., Tang, J., Zhu, M. 2023. Listeria monocytogenes cross-contamination during apple waxing and subsequent survival under different storage conditions. Food Microbiology. 110:104166
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Narindra Randriamiarintsoa. Michigan State University. Thermal Inactivation of Bacterial Pathogens Under Widely Changing Moisture Conditions in Cooked Bacon and Dried Apple
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Sicheng Sun. Washington State University. Thermal resistance and survival of Salmonella in chocolate products as influenced by water activity
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Hanna Louvau. University of California Davis. Understanding the levels and behavior of Salmonella in naturally contaminated cashews and fermented cashew cheese analogs
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Surabhi Wason. University of Arkansas. Radiofrequency and gaseous technologies for enhancing the microbiological safety of low moisture food ingredients
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yucen Xie. Washington State University. Control of Salmonella in Spices: Thermal Resistance, Stability During Storage and Surrogate
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Hua Zi. Washington State University. Steam treatments: strategies to control pathogen contamination
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Arshpreet Kahttara. University of Arkansas. Gaseous technologies for microbiological enhancing safety of low moisture foods
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Maeve Swinehart. Purdue. Needs assessment for behavior-change: A case study of consumer tree nut food safety


Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Our key stakeholders for this project are: (1) low-moisture food commodity handlers, (2) low-moisture food processors, (3) food retailers, (4) processing equipment suppliers, (5) students in the diverse disciplines involved in the project, (6) food consumers, and (7) food safety regulators, and (8) USDA-NIFA (as the principal investor in this project). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students (undergraduate and graduate level) from across the institutions have been involved in presenting research at international conferences. Project-specific events (such as stakeholder meetings and webinars) have highlighted student research and project involvement, giving individuals an opportunity to engage with stakeholders. Students involved in this project have continued to participate in a student-led council, increasing student networks and engagement across institutions. Two unique opportunities for professional development included a farm-to-processing almond industry tour (11 students) and a course material development project in which most of the direction and work output originates with the (10) graduate students as part of a mentored learning community (led by the project PD). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Besides publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, project results were disseminated at numerous industry and food safety community conferences. Most notably, our team maintain a substantial presence at the annual International Association for Food Protection conference, with a variety of communication modes (posters, technical talks, symposia, and roundtables). Our team maintains an online presence with virtual seminars, a project webpage (lowmoisture.msu.edu), and now with social media outlets (Instagram and Tiktok). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?THEME 1: While we anticipate next year to include the publishing of our work estimating the cost of outbreaks connected to wheat flour; our work will continue to build on the framework developed to include evaluation of other relevant food safety events. This will be stemmed into estimating other disease burden in a variety of low-moisture foods and stemmed into evaluating the impact on the market, which will be foundational to our development of an industry cost-decision tool. Additionally, we plan on expanding our investigation into food safety communication to consumers (survey of product labeling and consumer behavior) and firms (develop food safety culture assessment tools). We also plan on expanding our original scope on products to include niche market and consumer trends involving nut soaking and nut-based cheeses, which are emerging issues in this food safety sector. THEME 2: Activities within this theme will continue to fill information gaps on pathogen behavior needed for other themes and by stakeholders. We will continue to develop knowledge on pathogen kinetics during typical handling, storage, and dehydration of apples. Portions of this work are transitioning from discovery to model development capturing the impact of processing conditions on pathogen survival. We will also expand our investigation of typical handling, storage, and processing of wheat kernels to fill the information gap around on-farm pathogen behavior. This research will include investigating the impact of adverse events that may change our understanding of pathogen behavior overall, potentially representing more uncommon but riskier events. Our work on evaluating humidity sensor performance during prolonged application will be expanded to include specialized sensors for high-temperature applications. We anticipate the completion of this portion of work and publication before the end of the year. We plan on adding several new project initiatives over the next year, including investigation of cleaning/ sanitation of food grade stainless steel and research supporting Theme 1's inclusion of nut soaking and nut-based cheeses. THEME 3: The next year of our project will include the continuation of our ongoing personnel and industry support activities. This includes expanding our collection of internal and external seminars, another major stakeholder meeting where we will disseminate finding and solicit guidance, and active engagement with social media to promote low-moisture food safety. We will conclude our trainee-led development of associate-degree-level course modules centered on low-moisture food engineering and safety. The outcome will be several asynchronous modules that can be plugged into existing courses or adapted for industry workforce training. Concurrently, we will shift resources to directly identifying education/training needs of low-moisture food industries and eventual development of industry-centric resources. Additionally, a risk-based decision-support tool (currently being developed) for adoption of food safety technologies will be deployed for end-user testing. THEME 4: Our next steps are to examine the costs and benefits of methods to reduce foodborne pathogens, particularly those highlighted in Theme 2; and to assess benefits associated with traceability in the food supply chain to mitigate food contamination events more quickly. We also are planning future work with Theme Team 3 to assess the benefits and costs of the comprehensive efforts to improve food safety in the US almond industry. Next steps for the sustainability group include a quantitative microbial risk assessment of the harvest-ready almond production system, to explore changes in microbial risk to the almond per off-ground harvesting scenario. Additionally, we anticipate completion of the wheat flour life cycle analysis, at which time we will begin our analysis of dried apples. ASSESSMENT: Ongoing assessments will continue to be connected to personnel and stakeholder engagement. The upcoming year will focus evaluation efforts on outcome evaluation in each of the project domains.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The second year of this project has increased emphasis on the interconnectedness across the four project Themes. Overall, our teams have focused on filling knowledge, training, and research gaps. Where research readiness is high (e.g., almonds) we have focused on developing higher-level outputs, such as risk and sustainability assessments, along with evidence-based recommendations for improved approaches to process validation. For lesser researched sectors, such as dried apples, we have continued to develop our understanding of pathogen kinetics in order to inform critical knowledge gaps to stakeholders and inform the higher-level outputs to come in subsequent years of the project. THEME 1: The work investigating consumer practices and attitudes towards low-moisture food has resulted in numerous published studies, with additional work focusing on apple-drying and tree nut preparation practices. During the past year we have also advanced understanding of the consumer disease burden from Salmonella and STEC foodborne outbreaks connected to wheat flour. This portion of work is near completion; however, refining methodologies for estimating cost of illness will enable us to incorporate additional pathogens and help develop tools to evaluate the impact of outbreaks/recalls on industry behavior. THEME 2: Theme 2 teams have been focused on research identified by industry partners as processing knowledge gaps and research identified through cooperation with other thematic teams as knowledge gaps to the system-based approaches our project has taken to improve food safety. Research focusing on the processing environment has included a project focusing on evaluating polymer-based capacitive humidity sensors for accuracy and durability during prolonged use. We have also added new graduate students over the past year focused on improving cleaning and sanitation of low-moisture systems. This past year has also included projects that expand our knowledge on our model products. For wheat, we have investigated the impact of post-harvest storage and tempering on pathogen survival. For apples, we have collected data on the fate of pathogens during typical storage and dehydration using various apple geometries and time/temperature combinations. Our team demonstrated that a dehydration process consisting of fluidized-bed of apple cubes at 104°C for 50 min achieved an intermediate moisture product (~0.5 aw) but also achieved less than 1 log reduction of Enterococcus faecium, a surrogate for pathogens in low-moisture environments. However, when apple slices were dehydrated to a "crisp" state in a benchtop convective oven at 104°C, 4.8 log reductions of E. faecium were achieved in 20 min. In the past year, we have also investigated the impact of chocolate coating on Salmonella survival on almonds and dried fruit (cherries and raisins) contaminated pre-chocolate-coating. THEME 3: Our team has engaged food industry and safety professionals at several venues to disseminate information related to this project. Members of our team organized a roundtable discussion at the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) entitled "Flour and Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC): What Can be Done to Prevent Outbreaks." Team members also participated in other IAFP roundtables and symposiums focused on low-moisture food safety and validation methods. Our team also was involved in organizing and participating in two industry-focused events: (1) the Almond Board of California Annual Food Quality and Safety Symposium, and (2) the IFSH Low-Moisture Food Safety Task Force meeting. In these events, our team directly communicated project results to industry food safety experts and solicited input on project direction and on project activities, such as economic-based decision tools for implementing food safety systems. In the past year, we increasingly emphasized professional development for the graduate students and post-docs on our team. This included eleven individuals involved in a two-day almond industry tour with direct industry interactions at orchard, harvest, shelling, and processing levels. Additionally, ten graduate students from six institutions are working as a mentored learning community (led by the project PD) to develop associate-degree-level course modules for teaching fundamentals of food safety and processing. We also have maintained a virtual outreach environment with numerous webinars (detailed in the products section) and with social media (Instagram and Tiktok) using the handle @the_food_guardian. THEME 4: The foci of Theme 4 activities over the past year have been the risk assessments of the economic and human health effects of foodborne disease outbreaks in low-moisture foods. Our work has reinforced that wheat flour is a persistent risk to human health by translating the impact of key outbreaks of foodborne illnesses associated with flour and flour-based products into corresponding public health risk and economic costs. From 2001-2021, when considering for underdiagnosis and underreporting, we estimate the annual U.S. disease burden resulting from flour and flour-based food products to be 19,440 cases of foodborne illness. In our estimations of the economic burden associated with the consumption of flour and flour-based products, we found an annual average economic loss of $108 million based on the basic model and $258 million based on the QALY-based enhanced model. In conjunction with Theme 1, we have identified that there is a critical need to increase public awareness of the risks associated with consuming raw or insufficient cooked foods that contain wheat flour as an ingredient. The sustainability team has been developing the baseline sustainability analysis, using a life cycle assessment framework, of current wheat milling, almond harvesting, and dried apple production processes, with a focus on current food safety interventions. Almond processing sustainability analysis includes evaluation of alternate postharvest scenarios (e.g., mechanical drying postharvest) for their impact on pathogen prevalence and environmental impact. Life cycle impact assessments for these scenarios compared global warming potential, water consumption, and 16 other midpoint assessment impacts. The life cycle analysis for wheat flour is in the life cycle inventory stage, where data are being collected on milling and packaging scenarios. ASSESSMENT: Project assessment focused on three fields of evaluation: evaluation of management effectiveness, bibliometric impact, and social network analysis of stakeholder engagement with project components and project trainees. Management effectiveness was evaluated using a scale specifically designed for leaders of university-based research centers. Most respondents (composed of faculty, research staff, postdocs, and students) indicated that the management team engages in relevant leadership behaviors the "perfect amount" of time. Bibliometric analyses indicate the published research is well positioned to relevant scholars with journals in which project publications appearing in achieving a median 5-year impact factor of 6.30, nearly double the median category median impact factor of 3.22. Additionally, the 33 project journal articles have accumulated at least 125 citations by the time of analysis. The social network analysis results were indicative of a maturing project team. At this stage of the project, most external stakeholders (69%) have multiple points of connection within the project team. Seven stakeholders (including three from the stakeholder advisory group) were connected to at least 19% of project members. A majority (60%) of trainees supported by the grant had a connection to at least one stakeholder, with an average of 5.7 stakeholders.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei, X., Agarwal, S., Subbiah, J. 2021. Heating of milk powders at low water activity to 95 degrees C for 15 minutes using hot air-assisted radio frequency processing achieved pasteurization. Journal of Dairy Science, 104(9), 9607-9616.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei, X., Agarwal, S., Subbiah, J. 2021. Evaluation of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 as a surrogate for Salmonella enterica in milk powders at different storage times and temperatures. Journal of Dairy Science, 104(1), 198-210.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei, X., L. Chen, B. D. Chaves, M. A. Ponder, J. Subbiah. 2021. Modeling the effect of temperature and relative humidity on the ethylene oxide fumigation of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium in whole black peppercorn, LWT, 140, 110742
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei, X., Vasquez, S., Thippareddi, H., Subbiah, J. 2021. Evaluation of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 as a surrogate for Salmonella in ground black pepper at different water activities. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 344.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wei, X., Verma, T., Danao, M.-G. C., Ponder, M. A., Subbiah, J. 2021. Gaseous chlorine dioxide technology for improving microbial safety of spices. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 73.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: J. Jung, Widmar, N., Subramani, S., & Feng, Y. 2022. Online media attention devoted to flour and flour-related food safety in 20172020. Journal of Food Protection, 85(1), 7384.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Liu S., S. E. Keller and N.M. Anderson. 2022. Transfer of Salmonella from inert food contact surfaces to wheat flour, cornmeal and NaCl. J. Food Protection 85(2): 231-237.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., R. Scharff, J. Tang, E. Grasso-Kelly, Y Feng. 2022. Food Handling Practices for Apple Drying in Home Kitchens in the United States: A Survey. J. Food Prot. 85:1418-1430.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Verma, T., X Wei, BD Chaves, T Howell Jr, J Subbiah. 2022. Antimicrobial efficacy of gaseous chlorine dioxide for inactivation of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 on dried basil leaves. LWT, 153: 112488.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Xie, Y., S. Zhang, S. Sun, M.-J. Zhu, S. Sablani, and J. Tang. 2022. Survivability of Salmonella and Enterococcus Faecium in chili, cinnamon and black pepper powders during storage and isothermal treatments. Food Control 137:108935.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yang, R., L. Wei, J. Dai, and J. Tang. 2022. Thermal death kinetics of salmonella enteritidis PT30 in peanut butter as influenced by water activity. Food Research International 157:111288.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yang, R., T. Cheng, Y. Hong, L. Wei, and J. Tang. 2022. The effect of dry headspace on the thermal resistance of bacteria in peanut oil and peanut butter in thermal treatments. Food Control 137:108851.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Chen, H., Archila-Godinez, J. C., Klinestiver, L., Rosa, L., Barrett, T., Zabala, V., & Feng, Y. In press. Implementation of a dialogue-based food safety education program for low-income families. Food Control.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., Scharff, R., Anderson, N., Grasso-Kelly, E., & Feng, Y. In press. Food handling practices of apple drying in home kitchens: A survey. Journal of Food Protection. 85 (10) , pp.1418-1430
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Juan Carlos Archila Godinez (2022). From Needs Assessment to Program Evaluation: Using Content Analysis and Surveys to Evaluate Consumers' Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors. [Thesis, Purdue University Graduate School].
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M. M. Y. (2022). Exploring Food Safety Implications of Home Fruit Dehydration: A Case Study of Apple Drying. [Thesis, Purdue University Graduate School].
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Thomas, M. S. & Y. Feng (2022). Consumer Food Safety Needs Assessment: Exploring Elements of Behavior Change. [Thesis, Purdue University Graduate School].
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Chen, H., Anderson, N., Grasso-Kelley, E., Wu, F., Tang, J., Harris, L., & Feng, Y. Needs assessment of the low-moisture food industry: The next steps to advance food safety research and extension. Abstract P3-91. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Anderson, N.M. Improving Inactivation Models and Validation Methods for Pasteurization Processes of Low-water Activity Food Products. Presentation part of symposium 14 "Getting Floured by E. coli: Risk Assessment and Mitigation." Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Berglund, Z., Swinehart, M., DiCaprio, E.L., & Feng, Y. Small-scale processor self-identified barriers to effective food safety training programs. Abstract T9-02. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Berglund, Z., & Feng, Y. Systematic review, meta-analysis and thematic synthesis of virtual food safety trainings and education. Abstract P2-54. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Klug I., Q. J. Suehr, B. P. Marks and S. Jeong. Quantifying the Electrostatic Adhesion Force of Powders on Food Contact Surfaces for Dry Cleaning and Sanitization. Abstract P2-189. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Liu, X., E.M. Grasso-Kelley, and N.M. Anderson. Effect of Bed-Depth on Inactivation of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 during Hot-Air Drying of Fresh Cut Apple Cubes Abstract P3-87. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., Kinchla, A., Richard, N., DiCaprio, E L., & Feng, Y. Regulatory considerations for small-scale produce drying operations: A multi-state perspective obtained through inspector interview. Abstract P3-89. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., Scharff, R., Tang, J., Grasso-Kelley, E., Marks, B.P., & Feng, Y. Food-handling practices of apple drying in home kitchens: A survey. Abstract P2-61. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Low, M., & Feng, Y. Content analysis of food safety information in dried apple recipes on YouTube, blogs, cookbooks and extension materials. Abstract T9-04. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Moorman, M. A., N. M. Anderson, A. Tatavarthy, B. P. Marks, Y. Feng., L. J. Harris, K. Siliveru, K. A. Stevens, and S. P. Nguyen. Flour and shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC): What can be done to prevent outbreaks? Abstract RT2. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Shen, X., Y. Su, M. Mendoza, I. Hanrahan, J. Tang, and M. J. Zhu. Fates of Listeria monocytogenes on waxed apples and brushes contaminated during wax coating. Abstract P1-141. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Steinbrunner, P.J., E.M. Grasso-Kelley, and N.M. Anderson. Salmonella Survival on Whole Wheat Berries during Storage. Abstract P3-94. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Swinehart, M., L. J. Harris, H. Louvau, Y. Feng. Content analysis of online tree nut recipes: Soaked nuts and nut-based dairy alternatives. Abstract P2-59. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Swinehart, M., Harris, L., Anderson, N., & Feng, Y. Consumer practices of homemade nut-based dairy alternatives and soaked nuts. Abstract P2-60. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Thomas, M., Berglund, Z. , Low, M. Y. L., Soewardjono, R. A., Bryan, I., & Feng, Y. Evaluating the accessibility of food safety messages on flour packages using eye-tracking. Online content at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. July 10-13, 2022
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Thomas, M., Berglund, Z. , Low, M. Y. L., Soewardjono, R. A., Bryan, I., & Feng, Y. Evaluating the accessibility of food safety messages on flour and baking mix packages using eye-tracking technology. Abstract T9-05. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kearney, A., Hildebrandt, I., and Marks, B. Impact of Chocolate Coating on the Survival of Salmonella on Dried Nuts and Fruits Abstract P3-166. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. July 31-August 3, 2022.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Y. Feng, J. Archila. 2021. Consumer handling of wheat flour: Food Safety implications. Journal of Food Protection. 84(4), 628-638.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Chen L., Jung J., Chaves B.D., Jones D., Negahban M., Zhao Y., Subbiah J. 2021. Challenges of hazelnut shell surface for radio frequency pasteurization of inshell hazelnuts. Food Control. 125, 107948.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Chen, L., X. Wei, B. D. Chaves, D. Jones, M. A. Ponder, J. Subbiah. 2021. Inactivation of Salmonella enterica and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B2354 on cumin seeds using gaseous ethylene oxide. Food Microbiology. 94, 103656.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lau, S. K., Wei, X., Kirezi, N., Panth, R., See, A., Subbiah, J. 2021. A Comparison of Three Methods for Determining Thermal Inactivation Kinetics: A Case Study on Salmonella enterica in Whole Milk Powder. Journal of Food Protection, 84(3), 521-530.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Shen, X., Su, Y., Hua, Z., Sheng, L., Mendoza, M., He, Y., Green, T., Hanrahan, I., Blakey, R., & Zhu, M. J. 2021. Effectiveness of low-dose continuous gaseous ozone in controlling Listeria innocua on Red Delicious apples during 9-month commercial cold storage. Front Microbiol, 12, 712757.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Suehr, Q. J., X. Liu, E. M. Grasso-Kelley, and N. M. Anderson. 2021. Predictive Microbial Modeling of Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 Inactivation during Baking of a Multicomponent Low-Moisture food. J. Food Protect. 84(11):1990-2001.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Taylor, M. H., & Zhu, M. J. 2021. Control of Listeria monocytogenes in low-moisture foods. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 116, 802-814.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lau, S. K., Panth, R., Chaves, B. D., Weller, C. L., Subbiah, J. 2021. Thermal Inactivation Kinetics of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium NRRL-B2354 on Whole Chia Seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) Journal of Food Protection, 84(8), 1357-1365.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Verma, T., B. D. Chaves, S. Irmak, J. Subbiah. 2021. Pasteurization of dried basil leaves using radio frequency heating: A microbial challenge study and quality analysis. Food Control, 124, 107932.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wason, S., Verma, T., Subbiah, J. 2021. Validation of process technologies for enhancing the safety of low-moisture foods: A review. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science And Food Safety (5th ed., vol. 20, pp. 4950-4992).


Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Our key stakeholders for this project are: (1) low-moisture food commodity handlers, (2) low-moisture food processors, (3) food retailers, (4) processing equipment suppliers, (5) students in the diverse disciplines involved in the project, (6) food consumers, and (7) food safety regulators, and (8) USDA-NIFA (as the principal investor in this project). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The entire research team (including undergraduates, and graduate students), across multiple institutions has been able to share and present research at an international conference or directly to SAG members via virtual conference meetings. The team also has developed transdisciplinary approaches synergizing economics, engineering, microbiology, and food safety culture. In addition, the students involved in the SAS grant have formed a Student Leadership Council (SLC), meeting monthly, allowing for student-lead seminars, cross-institution knowledge transfer, and guest speaking engagements from outside researchers/industry members. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to peer-reviewed scientific journals, project results were presented at the 2021 Annual Meetings of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and other professional/scientific venues. Additionally, communications with key stakeholder groups have occurred through virtual seminars and the project webpage (lowmoisture.msu.edu). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?THEME 1: Consumer survey: We will continue analyzing collected data and will conduct a new consumer survey focusing on tree nuts. The tree nut high-risk home kitchen preparation survey is going to be developed and conducted in the coming year. The manuscript is planned to be written before the next reporting cycle. We will continue analyzing collected data (home apple-drying recipes) and will conduct a new content analysis focusing also focusing on home preparations. A new graduate student, starting January 2022, will focus on the content analysis. Eye-tracking: We will continue collecting data for the eye-tracking study and plan to write up a peer-reviewed journal article for publication during the next reporting cycle. In the area of economics: 1) We will complete another paper that will include not just the burden of human disease associated with the wheat flour outbreaks, but include the costs of recalls, cost of illness for hospitalized and reported cases, and reputational / process costs. 2) We will conduct these analyses as well for almonds and apples - our preliminary analysis indicates that it may be difficult to cost specifically any burden of disease or recall incidents associated with dried apples specifically, but we will give an upper bound estimate by costing for apples and apple products generally. THEME 2: For the coming year, we plan to accomplish these goals: 1) We will continue our research using the customized device mentioned above to obtain more data for Salmonella inactivation in black peppercorns at controlled temperature and humidity levels. 2) We will expand the tests on pathogen control for other low-moisture food materials, like almonds, diced apple, and wheat grains. 3) We will complete the development of a new platform for the durability test of humidity sensors at high temperatures, evaluating different humidity sensors from different commercial suppliers to evaluate whether they could serve industrial applications for pathogen control or if they need improvements. We also plan to publish a journal article on this topic and convey credible information to the food industry. 4) We will obtain pathogen inactivation data between 90 and 130 °C at low humidity levels. These conditions are typical for industrial drying of fruit, roasting of nuts, and pasteurization of flours and nuts. We also will investigate the survival of Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes on apples during hot-air drying as affected by processing conditions (e.g., air flow, humidity, etc.) as an extension of previous work and tie convective drying models to bacterial survival, focusing on development of novel pathogen inactivation models that account for the wide change in moisture content during these processes. In addition, work will be completed to assess the survival of E. coli on wheat as affected by on-farm conditions, including adverse on-farm events (e.g., blowdown) that may lead to high-moisture grain at harvest and on-farm post-harvest handling, including ambient and heated drying and long-term storage. Research findings will aim to bolster current extension guidelines. THEME 3: Informed by the home apple-drying and tree nut handling studies, we will continue to develop extension publications to educate home food handlers and to support the decision-making of managing food safety risks of low-moisture foods. We will develop online engagement by using Instagram, @the_food_guardian, and virtual game modules to provide more opportunities to consumers with informal extension education. Planning is underway to hold the 11th Annual IFSH Low Moisture Food Safety Task Force meeting in September, 2021. The IFSH LMFSTF is an expert group of approximately 50 industry, academic, and government food safety professionals whose aim is to build consensus on approaches to reducing illness from low moisture foods. Registered attendees will, through a brief online survey, directly determine the agenda by narrowing the topics of interest among respondents. At the meeting, we will utilize breakout groups to have intimate, focused discussions on ~3 topics to solicit direct input from the LMFSTF that will directly influence project direction and activities. After the meeting, we will follow up with a post-meeting assessment to evaluate meeting effectiveness. In the education area, we will prepare low-moisture food themed lectures and corresponding "at home" laboratory exercise for three associate degree courses (Fruit and Vegetable Processing, Food Microbiology, and Cereal Processing). We also will identify lead instructors for a multi-institution Low-Moisture Food Systems Course, finalize the syllabus, and identify speakers for initial offerings in Fall 2022 or Winter 2022. THEME 4: Our year-2 plans are the following: 1) We will integrate Themes 1 and 4 together in the economic / health-economic analyses, with results from Theme 2, before making estimations as to what "intervention" costs and benefits would be from low-moisture systems implementation. 2) We will assess the energy and water expenditures associated with baseline and future food systems, using life-cycle impact assessment. We will make estimations as to the sustainability of these low-moisture food systems for wheat flour, almonds, and dried apples. ASSESSMENT: Our efforts in these areas will use more structured and quantitative methods (e.g., questionnaires and bibliometric analyses) and will assess the extent to which the outcomes specified in our logic model have been produced. Primary data will be collected from significant stakeholder groups, including firms participating on our Stakeholder Advisory Group and participants in the various webinars and workshops.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project is advancing our understanding of scientific principles for pathogen control, assessing the human factors and barriers to adopting food safety strategies, improving decision-support tools for industry adoption, and combining risk and sustainability analyses for food safety interventions in low-moisture food systems. For the first year of this project, extensive work has been initiated in all four themes, including improving our understanding of pathogen control for low-moisture foods, conducting consumer behavior surveys, elucidating the economic burden associated with low-moisture food outbreaks, and developing educational courses for associate-level and graduate-level degree programs specific to low-moisture food safety. The ability for the SAS project to cover a wide breadth of topics, from economics, engineering, and social culture, provides a transdisciplinary systems-based approach to improving low-moisture food safety. Our team met virtually with our Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) twice this year - once for an overview with the SAG on the grant objectives, and once for a group discussion on current research status and inputs from the SAG for additional research recommendations. This report cannot detail all the key accomplishments from the current project year; the reader is encouraged to see the extensive list of project products for greater details. Some accomplishments across the project themes are listed below. THEME 1: This project has conducted several consumer surveys to understand home kitchen practices of low-moisture foods and the food safety implications of those practices. We have conducted focus groups and online surveys to understand consumers' food safety behaviors, risk perceptions, and trusted sources of food safety information. In addition, we conducted content analysis on the food safety message delivered by video learning resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project has conducted initial interviews with the project SAG members to identify the barriers to developing food safety culture in the low-moisture food industry. THEME 2: Our team has completed research on the survival of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium during hot-air drying of peeled apple cubes at low and high temperatures, 104 and 135?, respectively. It was found that sample bed depth (distance from the heat source) affected the thermal profile but did not affect the overall inactivation. Once product temperature achieved a threshold temperature of about 100?, rapid microbial inactivation occurred, exceeding 5-log inactivation. E. faecium inactivation was slower than Salmonella, indicating it would likely serve as a good surrogate for in-plant validation studies. In addition, we have completed research on bacterial inactivation of E. faecium in a multi-ingredient composite food during baking and assessed the predictive performance of traditional and modified thermal inactivation kinetic models. Dynamic inactivation models that accounted for process humidity greatly increased the predictive performance as compared to traditional isothermal models, which significantly overpredicted bacterial inactivation. The results demonstrated that heating time, product internal and surface temperatures, and oven wet-bulb temperature contribute significantly to microbial inactivation and are important process parameters to monitor in baking processes. Additional research has initiated work on validating the importance of high humidity for pathogen control in low-moisture foods. First, the team developed a laboratory device that is able to expose low-moisture foods in a high relative humidity environment of up to 85% at up to 90°C in a very short time. For this purpose, the team developed a method to calibrate commercial relative humidity sensors up to 100°C. Preliminary tests show large deviations of some commercial RH sensors (up to 8% above the reference RH), identifying a need to develop a standard calibration protocol at high temperature to improve the accuracy of existing humidity sensors from commercial suppliers. THEME 3: We conducted interviews with the project SAG members to identify needs of research and extension programs. Five food safety challenges were summarized from the interviews: Hygienic design, processing equipment, human factors, pathogen reduction, and traceability. We have developed two extension publications to educate food handlers on safe food handling of low moisture foods. We organized an online workshop with 3-session webinars for food safety educators. For our second webinar, there were 190 participants registered and 72 attended. Based on the post-survey reported by the attendees, approximately 5500 individuals will be impacted by this train-the-trainer workshop. In addition, an outline for a graduate level professional development course has been developed for application across multiple universities offering advanced education in low-moisture food safety. Our team convened a flour safety symposium at IAFP 2021. The results of FDA studies to understand prevalence of STEC in flour through a retail flour sampling assignment (2018-2019) and consumer knowledge and behavior of raw flour consumption were shared and discussed with the audience. During the symposium, FDA's vison of a "farm to table" approach for flour safety was highlighted, with the collaboration between FDA and the North American Miller Association (NAMA). THEME 4: This final theme will compare the baseline (no intervention with low-moisture food systems) costs to human welfare as a whole - market losses, losses in terms of environmental impacts (especially water and energy use), and losses to human health - with the implementation of low-moisture food systems to improve food safety for wheat flour, almonds, and apples. Our work has estimated the true burden of disease associated with the wheat flour outbreaks in the United States since 1998. ASSESSMENT: Our independent evaluation team engaged in three significant assessments during this first year of the project: (1) Team Science Social Network Analysis; (2) SAS Student Team Member Needs Assessment; (3) Stakeholder Advisory Group Meeting Assessment. For the social network analysis, the grant includes 34 unique participants, with a total of 350 connections between them. Providing a strong indicator of a team science approach are the multi-theme connections observed in the network, due to the number of participants who were affiliated with multiple themes. The grant is currently composed of a fairly diverse community, with 50% of participants identifying as belonging to at least one historically under-represented group in STEM. Underrepresented groups include those identifying as women, Black, Hispanic, first-generation students, veterans, or having a disability. The focus of the educational evaluation in year 1 was providing formative evaluation data to inform project educational activities and programming. During year 1, the project formed a Student Leadership Council (SLC). The SLC will be a forum for trainee networking, information sharing, collaborating, mutual support, and as a mechanism for ongoing feedback to project leadership. As a first step toward forming the SLC, project students and postdocs were asked to respond to a needs assessment. The needs assessment has been used to prioritize student and postdoc training opportunities provided through the grant, to maximize the potential impact on trainees. For the Stakeholder Advisory Group Meeting Assessment, the meeting included participant introductions, a project overview, project updates from each of the four theme teams, Guest Scholar presentations, a SAG focus group, and networking session. All the sessions were rated as very to extremely effective in a post-meeting survey, highlighting presentations from Guest Scholars not associated with the grant to the SAG.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Hildebrandt, I. M., B. P. Marks, N. M. Anderson, and E. M. Grasso-Kelley 2020. Reproducibility of Salmonella thermal resistance measurements via multi-laboratory isothermal inactivation experiments. J Food Prot. 83(4):609-614.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2021 Citation: Suehr, Q. J. X. Liu, E. M. Grasso-Kelley, and N. M. Anderson. 2021. Predictive modeling of E. faecium NRRL B-2354 inactivation during baking of a multi-component low-moisture food. Accepted June 28, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Liu, X., B. Douglas, L. Halik, J. Zhang, A. Rajesh Mayekar, and E. Grasso-Kelley. 2020. Evaluation of drying conditions to inactivate Salmonella in minimally processed apple products, P2. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, OH, August 2-5, 2020.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Steinbrunner, P., X. Yan, E. Grasso-Kelley, S. Keller, and N. Anderson. 2020. Intracellular moisture retention of desiccated Salmonella in low-water activity environments, P2. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, OH, August 2-5, 2020.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Liu, X., N. M. Anderson, P. Steinbrunner, and E. Grasso-Kelley. 2020. Effect of inoculated ingredient on the isothermal inactivation of Enterococcous faecium NRRL B-2354 in a multicomponent cookie dough, P2. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, OH, August 2-5, 2020.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Halik, L., N. Anderson, and E. Grasso-Kelley. 2020. Comparison of thermal resistance of Salmonella in wheat flour inoculated via glass bead transfer and liquid inoculation, P2. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, OH, August 2-5, 2020.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M., & Feng, Y. (2021, July 18-July 20). Consumers⿿ risk perception and trusted source for food safety information during COVID-19 pandemic. (Conference presentation abstract). Annual Meeting of Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M., & Feng, Y., (2021, March 9-12). Food safety education needs in the Era of COVID-19: A mixed-method needs assessment in April and May 2020. [Conference presentation abstract]. Annual Meeting of Consumer Food Safety Education Conference (CFSEC). Virtual
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Chen, H., Cheng, G., Chen, C., Zhang, Z., Feng, Y. (2021, July 18-21). Evaluation of Asian Restaurant Managers and Chefs⿿ Food Safety Knowledge and Practice of Handling Dried Wood Ear Mushrooms in the United States. [Conference presentation abstract]. Annual Meeting of International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Conference. Phoenix, Arizona
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Y. Feng. ⿿Summer School for at-home food safety⿝ session 2: Food safety implications of low-moisture foods. July 14. Virtual.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Grasso-Kelley, E. M., X. Liu, L. A. Halik, B. Douglas. 2021. Evaluation of hot-air drying to inactivate Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium on apple pieces. J Food Prot. 84(2):240-248.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yan, X., P. Steinbrunner, E M Grasso-Kelley, S. E. Keller, and N. M. Anderson. 2020 Effect of pH on thermal inactivation kinetics of Salmonella Anatum 6803 in low moisture environments, accepted ⿿ virtual. Institute for Food Technologists, Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, shifted to virtual, July 12, 2020.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Grasso, E.M. 2020. Evaluation of hot-air drying to inactivate Salmonella and E. faecium on apple pieces. Institute for Food Safety and Health Annual Meeting. Virtual. September 23, 2020.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Snyder, A., N. Anderson, D. Belina, C. Galer, E. Grasso-Kelley, L. Hintz, Y. Masters, S. I. Murphy, and E. Wilkins. 2021. Panelist, RT24. Operational choices and risk-based decision making around clean breaks in dry environments. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ (and virtual). July 19-21, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Grinstead, D., H. C. Den-Bakker, C. Giambrone, E. Grasso-Kelley, E. Moorman, E. Rosen, S. Thakur, D. Walker, and M. Weidmann. 2021. Panelist, RT30: Microbial resistance ⿿ is it related to sanitation? International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ (and virtual). July 19-21, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Nelson, K., Hildebrandt, I., James, M., & Marks, B. 2021. Assessment of consumer flour thermal treatments on the reduction of Salmonella. Abstract P1-95. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection. July 18-21, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Steinbrunner, P., E. Grasso-Kelley, S. Keller, and N. Anderson. Correlation of Intracellular Moisture and Thermal Inactivation Kinetics of Desiccated Salmonella at Acidic pH Conditions, P1-104. International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ (and virtual), June 19-21, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Anderson, N. M. 2021. FDA perspective on product grouping, in S7: Log reduction and product grouping strategies for validation ⿿ does one size fit all? International Association for Food Protection, Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ (and virtual). July 19-21, 2021
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Rahman R, Scharff R, Wu F. Forthcoming. Attribution and Economic Cost Estimation for Foodborne Illnesses Associated to Flour and Flour-Based Food Products. (Potential journal: Journal of Food Protection.)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dhowlaghar, N., J. Tang, and M. J. Zhu*. 2021. Thermal inactivation of Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 in desiccated shredded coconut. LWT-Food Science and Technology, 149: 111851 Taylor, M., and M. J. Zhu*. 2021. Control of Listeria monocytogenes in low-moisture foods. Trends in Food Science & Technology, in press "
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wason, S, Verma, T, Subbiah, J. Validation of process technologies for enhancing the safety of low-moisture foods: A review. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 2021; 1⿿ 43. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12800
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Hildebrandt, I., Scott-McKay, J., Birmingham, T., & Marks, B. 2021 Meta-analysis of almond pasteurization validations. Abstract P3-169. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection. July 18-21, 2021.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Barrett, T., & Feng, Y. 2020. Content analysis of food safety implications in online flour-handling recipes. Br. Food J. 123:1024-1041.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Feng, Y., & Archila-Godinez, J. C. 2021. Consumer knowledge and behaviors regarding food safety risks associated with wheat flour. J. Food Prot. 84:628-638.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jung, J., Widmar, N., Subramani, S., Feng, Y. Submitted. Online Media Attention Devoted to Flour and Flour-Related Food Safety in 2017 ⿿ 2020. J. Food Prot.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M. S., & Feng, Y. 2021. Consumer risk perception and trusted sources of food safety information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food Control, 108279.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M. S., & Feng, Y. 2021. Food Handling Practices in the Era of COVID-19: A Mixed-Method Longitudinal Needs Assessment of Consumers in the United States. J. Food Prot., 84(7), 1176-1187.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M., Haynes, P., Archila-Godínez, J. C., Nguyen, M., Xu, W., & Feng, Y. 2021. Exploring food safety messages in an era of COVID-19: Analysis of YouTube video content. J. Food Prot. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4315/JFP-20-463
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Archila-Godínez, J., & Feng, Y. (2021, March 9-12). Are food safety messages on flour packages effective? [Conference presentation abstract]. Annual Meeting of Consumer Food Safety Education Conference (CFSEC). Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Feng, Y., & Archila-Godínez, J. (2020, October 26-28). U.S. Consumers⿿ Flour Handling and Recall Knowledge. [Conference presentation abstract]. Annual Meeting of International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Conference. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thomas, M., & Feng Y., (2021, July 18-21). Food handling practices in the era of covid-19: A mixed-method longitudinal needs assessment of consumers in the United States. [Conference presentation abstract]. Annual Meeting of International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Conference. Phoenix, Arizona.