Total Collaborative Study Protocol_Solus One Salmonella v1 1

illness (salmonellosis) through cross‐contamination, e.g., when juices from raw meat or poultry 

encounter ready‐to‐eat foods, such as salads (4). 

However, contamination can also be found in several other food sources including low moisture 

foods such as spices. Spices have been used as food and flavorings since ancient times, and as medicine 

and food preservatives in recent decades. Many spices such as clove, oregano, thyme, cinnamon and 

cumin have been applied to treat infectious diseases or protect food because they were experimentally 

proven to possess significant antimicrobial activities against pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, the 

secondary metabolites of these spices are known as antimicrobial agents (5).  

The distribution of spice from primary producer to consumer can be very complex, involving 

multiple locations, multiple processing and/or packing steps. Inappropriate packing and storage of spice 

during any one of these steps may lead to the introduction of  Salmonella  into spice. Similar food safety 

concerns can also be associated with secondary spice processing facilities, particularly in seasoning and 

food manufacturing facilities as well as in wholesalers that pack and re‐pack spices. In addition, spice is 

sometimes added to foods after the final food manufacturing pathogen reduction step has been applied 

(6). 

With most  Salmonella outbreaks identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration having been 

linked to contaminated imported spice products, the updated risk profile indicates  Salmonella

prevalence in shipments of imported spice contamination to be at 1.7 to 18% (6).  

Due to the antimicrobial properties present in spices, traditional enrichment methods used in the 

culturing of  Salmonella , and subsequent testing using current molecular, immunoassay or cultural 

methodologies could struggle to detect these pathogenic organisms which in turn could lead to 

potential public illness outbreaks, hospitalizations and deaths attributable to the consumption of 

contaminated spices.

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