Food safety is increasingly becoming a global challenge. Recent foodborne illness outbreaks involving a wide range of food products have clearly shown that food pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli have breached their natural habitats. Most of these outbreaks have forced federal regulatory agencies to initiate recalls of unsafe food products on an almost daily basis to protect consumers from harmful pathogens capable of causing health hazards.
Foods such as bakery and snack products are largely considered to be safer than moist foods such as produce and meat products because they don’t support the rapid growth of microorganisms. However, research clearly indicates that pathogens such as Salmonella can survive for a long time in adverse conditions, including low-moisture environments.