Research Areas

Viral food safety

Food safety is threatened by a wide variety of viruses, being the enteric viruses the most relevant pathogens, which are transmitted through the fecal-oral route. These enteric viruses include norovirus, rotavirus, adenovirus, enterovirus, sapovirus, astrovirus, hepatitis A virus, and hepatitis E virus. Human noroviruses are the leading cause of gastroenteritis and the most common cause of foodborne illness, while Hepatitis A virus is the cause of between 2% and 7% of outbreaks worldwide caused by the consumption of contaminated food. In addition, there are emerging viruses such as the hepatitis E virus that pose an additional food safety hazard.

Our expertise includes the development of procedures for the detection and quantification of viruses in food and the assessment of the efficacy of conventional (e.g. heat-treatments, high pressure processing, chemical sanitizers) and emerging food technologies (e.g. application of natural compounds, antiviral coatings, antiviral packaging) for virus inactivation.

Publications

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   Rapid selective detection of potentially infectious porcine epidemic diarrhea coronavirus using viability RT-qPCR
   Antiviral activity of aged green tea extract in model food systems and under gastric conditions
   On the use of carrageenan matrices in the development of potential antiviral edible coatings of interest in berries

Special Issues in scientific journals

   Enteric Viruses in Food: Survival and Inactivation Methods
   Compounds to Prevent and Control Foodborne and Waterborne Viruses
   New Challenges for Detection and Control of Food-Borne Pathogens: From Tools to People

Projects

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Occurrence and accumulation of potentially infectious viruses in process water and impact of water disinfection practices to minimize viral cross-contamination (2020CPS09)

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Extraction and characterization of BIOactives and CARBohydrates from algae and seagrasses FOR FOOD-related applications (BIOCARB-4-FOOD)

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