Pseudomonas fluorescens and P. aeruginosa contaminations of poultry and poultry products: A review on food safety and quality

Abstract

The presence of Pseudomonas spp. in food poses a health concern due to their ability to grow during cold storage. Pseudomonas fluorescens and P. aeruginosa are two important species that cause food spoilage and foodborne illness, respectively. P. fluorescens is responsible for food spoilage due to secretion of protease and lipase enzymes, which cause off-odours, off-flavours, and rancidity, even under refrigeration storage. P. aeruginosa is recognised as opportunistic pathogens that causes illness in infected individuals. P. aeruginosa harbours multiple virulence factors that enable it to be a successful pathogen to cause infection in humans. Both of these bacteria commonly contaminate poultry products which cause quality and safety issues. They are capable of forming biofilm in food processing environments, and exhibit multiple antibiotic resistances. The biofilm formation enables these bacteria to persist in the environments, and contaminate food if improper sanitation and handling happen. The contaminated food will have a shorter shelf life which leads to food wastage. Pathogenic P. aeruginosa that exhibits multiple antibiotic resistance will cause serious foodborne illness to infected individuals due to failure in clinical treatment. As such, controlling the growth of these bacteria in poultry is important which can be done through good hygiene practices, modified air packaging, biopreservatives, and low temperature storage. Detection of these bacteria in poultry will also help to ensure the quality and safety related to poultry. Selective agar plating is an important method to isolate Pseudomonas spp., which is important for further analysis. Molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) are pivotal for rapid, robust, and specific detection of the targeted bacteria.