Redefining Salmonella spp. challenge testing in Ready to eat (RTE) products: current gaps and harmonisation proposal

Introduction

Salmonellosis remains a leading global cause of foodborne illness, with non-typhoidal Salmonella responsible for an estimated current global estimate of 93.8 million infections. While the pathogen's physiological characteristics, prevalence, and pathogenesis are well-established, significant knowledge gaps persist regarding the standardisation of experimental designs for challenge testing in food matrices. This review will address these gaps by analysing current protocols across diverse food products and proposing a comprehensive harmonisation process.

Methods

The review will follow the PRISMA methodology and it will identify the main issues of the topic, including regulations and industry guidelines on food products subjected to Salmonella spp. contamination, methods for challenge testing, and the different laboratory methods. Secondly, publications will be extracted from different search engines (Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science), and a series of keywords will be used: “regulation”, “Salmonella spp.”, “challenge test”, “enumeration”, “risk”, “public health”, “RTE”, “food”, and “review”. Combinations and permutations of these keywords will be made to gain a comprehensive analysis of the scientific literature. Then, publications will be analysed and skimmed based on their relevance and coherence with the topic.

Results

This review will delineate the current scientific gaps in creating a harmonised challenge testing methodology for Salmonella spp. for the diverse types of food products, according to their intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics, and the current detection/enumeration methodologies, according to ISO procedures and internal methods. Moreover, by synthesising the different regulatory frameworks and industry guidelines, a harmonisation attempt will be made.

Conclusions

Effectively managing Salmonella risks requires translating robust scientific evidence into protective, proportionate regulatory decisions. Challenge testing serves as the critical operational interface between laboratory science and food law. Implementing a harmonised protocol directly supports regulatory compliance, enabling food business operators to make validated, scientifically sound decisions regarding shelf-life verification, process control, and product formulation to ensure global public health.