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ABSTRACT

The environmental changes associated with climate change have a wide range of impact on the food production their supply or food storage. These climatic changes affect the food at various stages like food production, food storage, processing, marketing, availability, and quality of the food items or food commodities and also climate changesaffects  global security of food and  peoples’  income  especially,  in  developing countries.The quality of food decreases due to temperature changes or climate changes, and the favourable environment for bacteria encourages their rapid growth, which causes food-borne illnesses or contaminates the food.Microbes help in quality maintenance of food materials and due to adverse climate condition the growth of microbes get disturbed, thus affect food safety.

Cite this article:

Kothari M, Guleria I, Kumar C, (2022) Impact of Climate Change on the Microbial Safety of Food Commodities. Food and Scientific Reports, 3(8):31-33.

1.    Introduction

                One of the biggest issues or challenges that our world is currently facing is climate change. It is directly or indirectly related to human activities that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and comprise to variability in natural climate. These changes associated with climate change include the increase in seasonal temperature or increase in precipitation. In addition, climate change also arise due to the alteration of ocean properties, like surface temperature, acidification and lower levels of dissolved oxygen, due to the higher levels of green house gases or carbon dioxide  in the natural environment. The dairy industry is deeply affected by the climate change. Change in climate generally affects, relative humidity, temperatures and precipitations which influence the survival of pathogens in food, crops and particularly green leafy vegetables. Rain splashing facilitates the dispersal of microbes from soil to crop which ultimately affects the yield and quality. Extreme weather hazards such as flooding will increase the prevalence of some bacteria for example-Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. Therefore the main objective of this article to show or present that how the climate changes effects microbial food safety.

 A. Green leafy vegetables:

Leafy green vegetables (LGVs) are defined as the fresh produce commodity and are highly perishable or group of highest concerned needed products from a microbiological safety perspective (FAO / WHO 2009). Because vegetables are grown in the open area and vulnerable to contamination from contaminated manure that is used as fertilizer, water used for irrigation, and contact with wildlife (FAO/WHO 2009). Moreover, leafy green vegetables are grown and consumed raw and in large volumes.  Bacteria such as Salmonella spp. and pathogenic Escherichia coli strains, are the main pathogens and they are causing foodborne diseases through leafy green vegetables.

Contamination sources and pathways:

1) Manure

Salmonella spp. and E. coli are zoonotic diseases causing organism that are found in faeces from wildlife and livestock, which is the main source of environmental contamination. Wildlife and livestock may defecate on land or directly into surface water. The pathogens present in livestock manure that may hamper the microbial safety of pre-harvest leafy green vegetables that are killed by different treatments, such as long-term storage and/or composting. The use of improperly treated manure is an important risk factor to increase the hazards in leafy green vegetables. Such livestock manure may induce contamination in LGVs when it is applied during plant growth and by contaminating water supplies.

2) Surface Water

Surface water is a main source of transmission of E. coli for growing on pre harvested green leafy vegetables. Surface water may not only contaminate fruits and vegetables by irrigation, but also as result of flooding of production field after rain events. Extreme weather conditions (i.e. drought and heavy rains) have been shown to increase the levels of Salmonella typhimurium into leaves of lettuce.

3) Soil

Oil contains microbes with contaminated manure or faeces can be a major source of E. coli  andSalmonella spp. which can retain in  the soil up to weeks or several months . Plants are grown in contaminated soil, the pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella spp.viaroot. The process however is rare in field conditions and, additionally, E. coli O157:H7 does not persist in the leaves more than one week (Erickson et al. 2019). Salmonella spp. and Salmonella infantis can be transferred by runoff from soils via the surface and subsurface to the surface water.

4) Sewage

Sewage or domestic waste normally flows back to surface water after being treated or after proper treatment in waste water treatment plant. Sewage or effluents that are improperly treated in wastewater treatment plants when used for irrigation in field and this improper treated waste may contain high levels of pathogens as well as heavy metals. These pathogens when get attached with food materials may deteriorate the quality of food materials. Sewer overflows may cause many Salmonella serotypes andE. coli to directly enter into the surface of water and/or soil.

B.   Dairy Industry

Effects of Climate Change on Raw Milk and  Dairy Supply Chain:

Effects of climate and seasons is estimated or expected to rapidly influence the microbial commodities of dairy products. These climate changes may include alteration in average temperature, relative humidity, and sunlight exposure, variations in climate lead to the rise of pathogenic or spoiled Food. On the other hand, the indirect effect of climate change on the microbial profile of raw milk will occur through the heat stress induction in lactating cows, which influences their susceptibility to pathogenic microorganisms, and give rise to change micro flora. Thus ultimately the type of microorganism and their concentration will also change microorganism in raw milk. The heat stress will reduce the milk yield as well as decline the physiochemical properties of raw milk particularly in case of lactating cows.

Microbial and physico-chemical properties of raw milk are influenced by heat stress Climate change is lead to increase the average temperatures and extreme weather conditions are raised, for example-droughts which rapidly affect lactating cows in dairy industries, ultimately the quality of raw milk is altered. The hotter conditions induce heat stress in cows. Heat stress can be expressed as the effect of humid conditions and these humid conditions affect the resting state of cows, and with their result the normal productive or physiological conditions will be disturbed and lead to impairment of immune functions, due to all these disturbances oxidative stress induced and eating habits of lactating cow is decreased susceptibility to infection is increased as change in physiological conditions.

 CONCLUSION

Change in climate can disturb availability of food, and reduces access to food, and also affects the quality of food. For example, projected increases in temperatures, precipitation pattern changes, extreme weather changes, and less availability of water may all result in reduced agricultural productivity. Forests and oceans both play important and vital roles in regulating climate, by inhibiting deforestation or planting trees or increasing the ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help to stop global warming. Microbes carry the key role in maintaining quality standard of food materials and some microbes have the ability to protect food from spoilage during climate change.

References

 

Erickson M. C., Liao J. Y., Payton A. S., Cook, P. W., Ortega, Y. R. (2019). Survival and internalization of Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7 sprayed onto different cabbage cultivars during cultivation in growth chambers. J Sci Food Agric.99(7):3530-3537.

FAO/WHO.(2009). Technical Meeting on Salmonella and Campylobacter in Chicken Meat, 4-8 May. Rome, Italy.

Feliciano R. J., Boue G., Membre J. M. (2020). Overview of the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Microbial safety of the Dairy Industry. Food 9:1794.

http://www.fao.org/eg/agn/agns

http://www.who.int/foodsafety

United Nations. United Nations Framework Convention; UN General Assembly: New York, NY, USA, 1992.

www.vegetableclimate.com:Impacts of climate on the Australian vegetable industry. 

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Impact of Climate Change on the Microbial Safety of Food Commodities1_compressed.pdf