With the increased consumption and production of fresh vegetables, the safety risks of vegetables, especially the risk of foodborne disease outbreaks, are also increasing. The food safety risks caused by pathogenic microorganisms in contaminated fresh vegetables are becoming leading threats to human health. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is the core of preventing and controlling microbial hazard risks. This study aims to identify the main foodborne pathogens in fresh vegetables and review the applications of QMRA for assessing these major foodborne pathogens in fresh vegetables.
A comprehensive review was conducted by searching the databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and CNKI for the articles with terms related to “applications of QMRA” and “foodborne pathogens in vegetables” or “foodborne diseases caused by fresh vegetables” between 2000 and 2024.The main pathogens in fresh vegetables that cause outbreaks of foodborne diseases have been identified through analyzing the reports of foodborne disease events that have occurred internationally in recent years. The studies of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment applications for these main pathogens have been reviewed. The current applications and future studies of QMRA in assessing main pathogenic microorganisms in fresh vegetables and ready to eat vegetables have been summarized.
The review identified the top four pathogens associated with fresh vegetables that cause foodborne disease outbreaks are Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Norovirus. Monte Carlo simulation approach is the most common and widely used technique for QMRA models applied to fresh and ready-to-eat vegetables, as it is easy-to-implement. The study on the applications of QMRA methods highlighted the key contamination variables and processes in the fresh produce chain as the cross-contaminations from farm to fork including soil, irrigation water, manure, human handling, storage, temperature, packaging, retail conditions, and evaluated the effectiveness of the preventive measures that have been implemented.
