Virulence Factors of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Korean Pork bulgogi: Enterotoxin Production and Antimicrobial Resistance

Hazard of Staphylococcal Enterotoxins in Food and Promising Strategies for Natural Products against Virulence

Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) secreted by Staphylococcus aureus frequently contaminate food and cause serious foodborne diseases but are ignored during food processing and even cold-chain storage. Notably, SEs are stable and resistant to harsh sterilization environments, which can induce more serious hazards to public health than the bacterium itself. Therefore, it is necessary to develop promising strategies to control SE contamination in food and improve food safety. Natural products not only have various pharmaceutical properties, such as antimicrobial and antitoxin activities, but they are also eco-friendly, safe, nutritive, and barely drug-resistant. Here, the hazards of SEs and the promising natural compounds with different inhibitory mechanisms are summarized and classified. The key points of future research and applications for natural products against bacterial toxin contamination in food are also prospected. Overall, this review may provide enlightening insights for screening effective natural compounds to prevent foodborne diseases caused by bacterial toxins.

Nitroso-hemoglobin Increased the Color Stability and Inhibited the Pathogenic Bacteria in a Minced Beef Model: A Combined Low-field NMR Study

This study mainly investigated the improvement effect of nitroso-hemoglobin (NO-Hb) and four lactic acid bacteria (LAB) (Streptococcus thermophiles, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus casei, and Montessori enterococcus) on the color and microbiological qualities of raw beef. Three strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, and Pseudomonas were used as pathogenic bacteria. The results showed that both NO-Hb and LAB could enhance the color stability and scavenged the spoilage bacteria in a minced beef model. But the improvement effect of NO-Hb was more significant than LAB. This suggested that NO-Hb, as a novel ingredient, could be used as a promising substitute for nitrite in meat products to improve the color and safety of meat products. In addition, low field (LF)-NMR method has been established to be practicable to identify changes in the relaxation times of water and fat caused by different type of bacteria and the storage periods. The number of relaxation components in minced beef was affected by bacteria and increase of the storage period.