Food Safety in Hydroponic Food Crop Production: A Review of Intervention Studies to Control Human Pathogens

Abstract

The production of hydroponic fresh produce presents unique food safety and intervention challenges. A systematic approach was used to map and characterize the evidence on hydroponic food safety. Quantitative data describing the effectiveness of intervention studies were extracted, synthesized, and assessed for quality. A search of electronic databases yielded 131 relevant papers related to hydroponic food safety. Thirty-two studies focusing on food safety interventions reported 53 different interventions using chemical (n = 39), physical (n = 10), multiple-hurdle (n = 2), and biological (n = 2) approaches. Human pathogen indicators and surrogates were most often studied (n = 19), while pathogenic strains like Salmonella spp. (n = 9), Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) (n = 5), Listeria monocytogenes (n = 2), and viruses (Hepatitis A virus (HAV), n = 1; norovirus (NoV), n = 1) were studied less frequently. Of fourteen articles (43.8%) investigating pre-harvest interventions, most (42.9%) did not specify the hydroponic system type. Gaps remain in the available evidence regarding the efficacy of interventions for controlling human pathogens in near-commercial hydroponic systems. The quality assessment revealed a significant lack of detailed reporting on methods and outcomes, making it difficult to translate the findings into practical recommendations for the industry; therefore, this review provides recommendations for the scientific community to improve future research design and reporting in this field.