Benign Bacterium to Block Salmonella from Colonizing Raw Tomatoes

A benign bacterium that shows promise in blocking Salmonella from colonizing raw tomatoes has been identified by scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A benign bacterium that shows promise in blocking Salmonella from colonizing raw tomatoes has been identified by scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Their research is published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

When applied to Salmonella-contaminated tomato plants in a field study, the bacterium, known as Paenibacillus alvei, significantly reduced the concentration of the pathogen compared to controls.

Health Benefits of Tomato
Tomatoes are a rich source of potassium and vitamins. Tomatoes are used in the manufacture of skin care products. They have a whole lot of health benefits and one prominent benefit is its role in reducing prostate cancer risk.

Outbreaks of Salmonella traced to raw tomatoes have sickened nearly 2,000 people in the US from 2000-2010, killing three. Since the millennium, this pathogen has caused 12 multistate outbreaks of food-borne illness—more than one each year. It was this carnage that provided the impetus for the study, according to corresponding author Jie Zheng, of the FDA.

"The conditions in which tomatoes thrive are also the conditions in which Salmonella thrives," says coauthor Eric W. Brown, also of FDA, "but we knew that if we could block Salmonella from infecting the tomato plant, we could reduce its risk of infecting the person who eats the tomato."

The logic behind the work is simple. Many innocuous bacterial species thrive within the tomato-growing environment.

Tomato Juice Can Reduce Oxidative Stress from Vigorous Physical Activity
A cup of tomato juice can protect you from reactive oxygen stress produced in response to a 20-minute acute physical activity.

"We hypothesized that such an organism could be found that possessed the ability to outcompete or chemically destroy Salmonella," says Zheng. "After screening many hundreds of potential biocontrol strains of bacteria that were isolated from farms and natural environments in the Mid-Atlantic region, we found about 10 isolates of bacteria representing very different genera and species that could curb the growth and/or destroy Salmonella in our test assays."

Many of these were as pathogenic to humans as is Salmonella, but two isolates, belonging to the environmentally friendly species, P. alvei, strongly inhibited growth of Salmonella.

Food Combinations that Affect Your Well Being
Combining the foods to give you the optimum nutritional value is the key to healthy eating.

"This bacterium also has no known history of human pathology, making it a great candidate as a biological control agent," says Zheng.

"While farmers and agricultural scientists have long used microbes to prevent plant diseases, we now have the opportunity to add a naturally-occurring microbe to a crop in the field with the goal of preventing human disease," says Zheng. "Our ambitions are now to extend this microbial approach to cantaloupe, leafy greens, and other crops that have lately been responsible for outbreaks of food-borne Salmonella and E. coli."

Foods to Lower Cholesterol and Heart Disease
Heart diseases are the most common and threatening disease today. It has takes millions of lives all over the world each year and the death count is not going down. Here are tips to a healthy heart.

Source-Eurekalert