• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.184-191
• /
• 2020

Objectives: This study was performed to analyze cases of food poisoning outbreaks reported in Chungcheongnamdo Province in 2019 and report it as effective data for preventing food poisoning in the future. Methods: Food poisoning outbreaks were analyzed to detect virus, bacteria, and protozoa according to the Manual for Detection of Foodborne Pathogens in Outbreaks to clarify the causes of food poisoning that occurred in Chungcheongnam-do Province in 2019. Results: Among the 79 cases of food poisoning outbreaks, 59 cases (74.7%) were in general restaurants, 15 cases (19.0%) in food service institutions, three cases at banquets, and two cases in take-out food. The 42 cases at general seafood restaurants made up the majority of food poisoning in Chungcheongnam-do. Food poisoning pathogens were shown in 13 cases (86.7%) out of the 15 cases at food service institutions, and 10 cases were related to Norovirus. Among the 79 cases, food-borne pathogens were identified in 35 cases of outbreaks, accounting for 44.3%. The confirmed pathogens were as follows: bacteria (24 cases), Norovirus (12 cases) and Kudoa septempunctata. (five cases). The food-borne bacteria were pathogenic E. coli (12 cases), Staphylococcus aureus (six cases), Salmonella spp. (two cases), Campylobacter jejuni, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (one case). Conclusions: To prevent food poisoning, it is necessary to analyze regional characteristics and environments and to hold a campaign for the prevention of food poisoning based on that analysis. In addition, when food poisoning occurs, the results of analyzing its cause and spread based on accurate epidemiological survey need to be shared.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.13-18
• /
• 2010

This study was performed to investigate the antimicrobial effects of Euphorbia humifusa ethanol-extract against food-borne pathogens. The growth inhibitory effects of the extract at a concentration of 250, 500, 1,000 or 2,000 mg/L on food poisoning microorganism were determined against Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus. The microorganisms growth was not affected by the extract at the concentration up to 250 mg/L, but was significantly (p<0.05) inhibited by the extract at a concentration higher than 1,000 mg/L. The extract of Euphorbia humifusa had strong antimicrobial activity against all test strains at a concentration of 2,000 mg/L. The results in the present study demonstrate antimicrobial effects of Euphorbia humifusa ethanol-extract against food-borne pathogens, suggesting that Euphorbia humifusa could be an effective natural antibacterial agent in food.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.352-361
• /
• 2010

Objectives: This study estimated the annual socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease in 2008 from a societal perspective and using a cost-of-illness method. Methods: Our model employed a comprehensive set of diagnostic disease codes to define food-borne diseases with using the Korea National Health Insurance (KNHI) reimbursement data. This study classified the food borne illness as three types of symptoms according to the severity of the illness: mild, moderate, severe. In addition to the traditional method of assessing the cost-of-illness, the study included measures to account for the lost quality of life. We estimated the cost of the lost quality of life using quality-adjusted life years and a visual analog scale. The direct cost included medical and medication costs, and the non-medical costs included transportation costs, caregiver's cost and administration costs. The lost productivity costs included lost workdays due to illness and lost earnings due to premature death. Results: The study found the estimated annual socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease in 2008 were 954.9 billion won (735.3 billion won-996.9 billion won). The medical cost was 73.4 -76.8% of the cost, the lost productivity cost was 22.6% and the cost of the lost quality of life was 26.0%. Conclusions: Most of the cost-of-illness studies are known to have underestimated the actual socioeconomic costs of the subjects, and these studies excluded many important social costs, such as the value of pain, suffering and functional disability. The study addressed the uncertainty related to estimating the socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease as well as the updated cost estimates. Our estimates could contribute to develop and evaluate policies for food-borne disease.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate the antimicrobial activity of grapefruit extracts and polylysine mixture against food-borne pathogens. The mixture was showed a potent and quick antibacterial activity for 5 major bacteria causing food poisoning i.e. Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O-157, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae. The antibacterial effect of the mixture on the ordinary bacteria inhibiting on the surface of lettuce was lasted even 6 hrs after the treatment, however the mixture was non-effective on the color, smell and taste of lettuce. The treatment with 10% mixture solution of the foods such as fish, meat, rice and bread suppressed the growth of the bacteria and kept the foods more freshly than the untreated foods.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.255-265
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Mobile phones have become one of the most essential accessories in daily life. However, they may act as reservoir of infectious pathogens if they are used without hygienic practices in their handling. Therefore, this study aimed to isolate food-borne pathogens from mobile phones and investigate the characteristics of toxin genes and antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Methods: A total of 146 mobile phones were collected from 83 middle- and 63 high-school students in Busan. The surfaces of the mobile phones were aseptically swabbed. Results: Among the food-borne pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli were detected in 26 (17.8%), 20 (13.7%) and four (2.7%) samples, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences according to school level, gender or phone type. None of four E. coli strains had pathogenic toxic genes. All of the B. cereus strains carried at least three different toxin genes among the nine enterotoxin and emetic toxin genes. Three out of 20 B. cereus strains (15%) possessed emetic toxin genes, which are rarely detected in food-poisoning cases in Korea. Among the 26 strains of S. aureus, the detection rate of staphylococcal enterotoxin genes, toxic shock syndrome toxin (tsst) and factors essential for methicillin resistance (femA) were 84.6%, 7.7% and 100%, respectively. In the antibiotic susceptibility test, there was no methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) or vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA). Conclusion: The results show that students' mobile phones in Busan were contaminated by food-borne pathogens which carried various toxic genes. Therefore, regular phone disinfection and hand hygiene is important in order to reduce cross-contamination.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.248-253
• /
• 2011

KFDA compiles the statistical data of food poisoning outbreaks two or more persons since 2002 in Korea and release them to the public on the web. There is a gap of outbreak number between the real situation and the reports. To reduce the gap, addition of sporadic individual case of food poisoning may be one of the solution method. The statistical data of Japan where food consumption pattern is similar to Korea, were used in this study to compare the ratio and the pattern between the outbreak cases two or more persons and individual cases. By doing so, the data of Japan regarding to outbreak cases two or more persons will be comparable to that of Korea. The data of 2002 and 2003 in Japan showed that sporadic individual cases were 43.3% in the total food poisoning cases. The individual cases occurred highly in unknown places (90-92.3%) and home (6.2-8.5%) whileas the outbreaks two or more persons occurred mostly in the place of restaurants (46.6-50.l%) and inns (9.2-9.8%). The food-borne pathogens attributed to the individual cases were C. jejuni (51.9%), Salmonella spp. (35.3%), and V. parahaemolyticus (9.8%) while those to the outbreak cases two or more persons were norovirus (31.3%), Salmonella spp. (20.8%), C. jejuni (15.5%) in Japan. The data of 2002-2009 between Korea and Japan showed the outbreak case report rate was 1:1.5 based on the total population number.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.1169-1173
• /
• 2003

Growth of a newly emerging pathogen, Arcobacter butzleri, in domestic raw meat was evaluated by various sanitizing agents. One percent of acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, and trisodium phosphate (TSP) added to the cell suspension of six A. butzleri strains inhibited their growth within ten minutes, and especially the lactic acid inhibited growth within five minutes. One percent of all the acids at the culture broth inhibited growth completely within one hr. 0.1% of the acids inhibited growth within 72 hr, whereas two percent of TSP had the same effect in one hr. Among the acids, lactic acid had the strongest inhibition activity. Hydrogen peroxide, sodium hypochlorite, and ethanol showed lower inhibiting activities than the above agents. While garlic extract and lactic acid bacteria culture also inhibited A. butzleri, onion extract did not. Therefore, food-borne poisoning of A. butzleri in raw meat could be prevented by organic acid and trisodium phosphate treatments.

• Journal of Science Criminal Investigation
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.210-217
• /
• 2017

In the forensic microbiology laboratories, microorganism analyses from food are requested. There have been several cases of Bacillus cereus isolated from the samples requested to the National Forensic Service. B. cereus is an important pathogenic bacterium which can cause food-borne outbreaks. Therefore, we isolated B. cereus from anchovy aekjeot recently requested for microbial examination and identified using MSId based on the 16S rDNA sequence and real-time PCR method. We also conducted PCR for detection of diarrheal toxin genes and an emetic toxin gene and found the presence of nheABC, bceT and entFM diarrheal toxin genes in the B. cereus isolate. There are several clinically important food-poisoning bacteria that should be noted during inspection. In particular, B. cereus can cause food poisoning even when cooked foods are ingested, because B. cereus forms endo-spore which confers strong environmental resistance and heat resistance to the bacteria, and the bacterial emetic toxin also has heat resistance. Here we highlight the importance to distinguish clinically important bacteria such as B. cereus from food specimens, and we expect this study will provide procedures for identification of B. cereus and detection of the bacterial toxin genes for future cases in the forensic microbiology laboratories.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.352-356
• /
• 2008

This study was performed to investigate the antimicrobial effects of Origanum majorana L. ethanol extract against food-borne pathogens. The antimicrobial activity of Origanum majorana L. extract was determined using a paper disc method. The extract exhibited growth inhibiting activities in a concentration dependent manner on 10 species microorganisms. The extract of Origanum majorana L. showed the highest antimicrobial activity against Salmonella enteritidis. The growth inhibitory effects of Origanum majorana L. extract on food poisoning microorganisms were determined against Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes, gram negative and positive bacteria, respectively. The extract of Origanum majorana L. had strong antimicrobial activity against Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes at the concentration of $700 mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$. At this concentration, the extract of Origanum majorana L. inhibited the growth of Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes up to 60 and 36 hours, respectively. The results in the present study demonstrate antimicrobial effects of Origanum majorana L. ethanol extract against food-borne pathogens, suggesting that Origanum majorana L. could be an effective natural antibacterial agent in food.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.217-227
• /
• 2023

The consumption of ready-to-eat side dishes is rapidly growing in South Korea. These foods are particularly vulnerable to microbiological contamination as they are often cooked without any treatment, such as heating or stored at room temperature after cooking. Hence, in 2022, we analyzed the ready-to-eat side dishes sold in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea for microbiological contamination. We collected 100 samples from supermarkets in 7 cities, and then examined them for presence of food-borne pathogens and sanitary indicator bacteria. In the analysis of the food-borne pathogens, Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens were isolated from 51 samples (51.0%) and 3 samples (3.0%), respectively. However, both quantitatively met the Korean Food Standards Codex. Genes of five different enterotoxins and one emetic toxin were analyzed from the 51 isolated B. cereus strains. We detected enterotoxin entFM (100.0%), nheA (94.1%), hblC (58.8%), cytK (56.9%), and bceT (41.2%) in 51 isolates, and emetic toxin gene, CER, in only one (2.0%) isolate. We did not detect C. perfringens toxin gene (cpe) that causes food poisoning in any one of the three C. perfringens isolates. In the case of sanitary indicator bacteria, Kimchi had the highest levels of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms, followed by Saengchae, Jeotgal, Jeolim, Namul, and Jorim, respectively. We counted total aerobic bacteria at two different storage temperatures (4℃ and 20℃) to determine the effect of storage temperature. When stored at 20℃, total aerobic bacteria count increased in most of the ready-to-eat side dishes, except for Jeotgal. This result conclusively shows the need for refrigerating the ready-to-eat side dishes after purchase. Further research is needed to assess the risk and safety of the ready-to-eat side dishes available in the market and determine appropriate safety management practices.