mainlycausedbySalmonellaandL. monocytogenes. In the UK,Cl. perfringens
is the second most importantpathogencausingfoodbornedeaths, but againthe
underreportingfactoris muchhigherthanin the USA.
2.1.2 Related products
Oncean importantorganism has beenidentified,it is importantto identify its
transmissionroute.Onecan followthreeapproaches:
∑ identifyfoodsin outbreaks (by case-control, typing,.. .);
∑ comparingtypesin cases/foods(sero-,phage-typing);
∑ quantitative risk assessment.
The first method is straightforward in that if a certain food/organism
combination is suspectedin a caseor an outbreak,one can clearlyestablisha
link betweenthe foodproductand the case/outbreak by typing. Foodssuspected
in incidents are usuallyinvestigatedby foodinspectionservices and the WHO
has collected thesedata for various countriesin the world (Fig. 2.3) (Rocourtet
al., 2003).It can be seenthat the products that contributemostto the numberof
foodborne illnesses are meat and meatproductsand eggsand egg products. This
is probablycaused by the presenceofSalmonellaandCampylobacterspp.,
whichare known to be an important causeof foodborne outbreaks (see previous
Fig. 2.3 Contributionof variousfoodproductsto the numberof foodborneillnessesfor
variouscountriesin 1998±2001(Rocourtet al., 2003).
The rangeof microbialrisksin foodprocessing 35