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EDITORIAL article

Front. Microbiol., 30 March 2023
Sec. Food Microbiology
This article is part of the Research Topic New Methods or Strategies to Inactivate or Control Foodborne Viruses View all 5 articles

Editorial: New methods or strategies to inactivate or control foodborne viruses

  • 1Department of Microbiology, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, United States
  • 2Department of Food Science and Technology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
  • 3Department of Preservation and Food Safety Technologies, Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IATA-CSIC), Valencia, Spain

Foodborne viruses have been the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. There is a great need for novel approaches to inactivate or control foodborne viruses as food products commonly associated with foodborne viruses are not suitable for heat treatments. Furthermore, most foodborne viruses, especially noroviruses, are resistant to alternative treatments and preservatives that can be used to control foodborne bacterial pathogens. With the latest scientific knowledge on foodborne viruses and new cultivation techniques for human noroviruses (HuNoVs), scientists around the world have been investigating and developing new controlling methods and strategies. Therefore, we launched the Research Topic in July 2021.

This volume includes four articles with research subjects of HuNoV and rotavirus. Escudero-Abarca et al. characterized the efficacy of eight commercial hand sanitizers (seven-ethanol-based and one benzalkonium chloride-based), alongside with 60% ethanol solution as a benchmark, against HuNoV with an epidemic GII.4 HuNoV strain by an in vivo fingerpad method, and found that product performance was variable and none of the products were able to completely inactivate the HuNoV. Using a small-scale system, Song et al. evaluated the efficacy of slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) combined with ultraviolet C-light-emitting diode (UVC-LED) in inactivating a GII.4 HuNoV strain, on a stainless-steel surface. They found that the specific treatment conditions for inactivation of the HuNoV strain were an SAEW droplet volume of 180 μL with 30 ppm available chlorine concentration and a UVC-LED exposure dose of 2 mJ/cm2, and suggested that the combined treatment could effectively prevent the spread of HuNoVs. Xu et al. investigated the direct interactions between lettuce-encapsulated bacteria that expressed histo-blood group antigen-like substances and a GII.4 HuNoV strain and through simulated environmental experiments, including short-time high-temperature treatment (90°C) and UV exposure, they demonstrated that binding of HuNoVs with bacteria expressing histo-blood group antigen had detrimental effects on the HuNoV reduction. Cantú-Bernal et al. examined the anti-rotavirus effect of probiotics Bifidobacterium longum and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum in combination with microalga Chlorella sorokiniana in a dairy product flan, and observed a potent anti-rotavirus effect of C. sorokiniana, as well as increased anti-rotavirus activity of the probiotics with the combination of C. sorokiniana.

Taken together, we hope this collection of articles provide useful and applicable information in controlling and inactivating foodborne viruses, to help prevent illness and outbreaks caused by foodborne viruses.

Author contributions

XL: original draft preparation and editing. DL and GS: editing. All authors have approved the article.

Acknowledgments

The editors of this topic would like to thank all authors and reviewers for their contributions to the present collection.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Keywords: foodborne viruses, noroviruses, rotavirus, inactivation, food safety

Citation: Li X, Li D and Sánchez Moragas G (2023) Editorial: New methods or strategies to inactivate or control foodborne viruses. Front. Microbiol. 14:1188935. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1188935

Received: 18 March 2023; Accepted: 21 March 2023;
Published: 30 March 2023.

Edited and reviewed by: Aldo Corsetti, University of Teramo, Italy

Copyright © 2023 Li, Li and Sánchez Moragas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Xinhui Li, eGxpJiN4MDAwNDA7dXdsYXguZWR1

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.