Charting the Current Situation of Clostridia in Foods and the Environment: Prevalence, Pathogenicity, and Spoilage

Clostridia are a diverse group of anaerobic bacteria that jeopardize food hygiene and public health through production of highly resistant endospores and a multitude of various toxic and/or food spoiling metabolites. Clostridia prevail in soils, aquatic environments, vegetation, and in the animal gastrointestinal tract, and frequently enter various man-made systems, such as the food chains. The spores tolerate food processing and may germinate into active cultures in anaerobically packaged foods during extended storage. Several species include psychrotrophic or psychrophilic strains that grow at low temperatures and thereby challenge the cold food chain. Mesophilic strains, on the other hand, may reach very rapid growth in foods stored at an abused temperature range.

The most well-known foodborne pathogenic clostridial species include Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium perfringens. The former produces the highly paralytic botulinum neurotoxin (BOT) that causes a life-threatening tetraplegia called botulism, while the latter produces many different toxins with the C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) being responsible for a common foodborne diarrhea. Moreover, Clostridium difficile responsible for a severe nosocomial colitis, may contaminate foods and raw materials. While disease cases of foodborne origin remain to be reported,

Novel aspects and pending research questions on the epidemiology, pathogenicity and control of foodborne pathogenic clostridia will be discussed, with special emphasis on C. botulinum.