With an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections involving cooked diced chicken now affecting three provinces, the University of Guelph has experts who can discuss the outbreak and the listeria bacterium.
Prof. Keith Warriner, a food microbiologist in the Department of Food Science, researches food-borne pathogens, food-borne hazards detection technologies and intervention technologies.
His research has contributed to methods and practices that are currently used in the food industry, including the implementation of new cooking instructions for poultry products in Ontario, the creation of decontamination methods for dry ingredients such as flour and chia seeds, and microbiological safety practices for fresh produce.
Prof. Jeffrey Farber, also a food microbiologist with the Department of Food Science, is one of the country’s foremost experts on listeria. He has written and co-written 50 publications on listeria research and risk assessment, and can discuss the dangers posed by this pathogen.
Farber is director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety at U of G and conducts research to develop new models to understand the host-pathogen relationships and to develop disease modelling tools to predict events that might lead to the emergence of new food-borne pathogens.
Contact:
Prof. Keith Warriner
kwarrine@uoguelph.ca
Prof. Jeffrey Farber
jfarber@uoguelph.ca