26. Staphylococcal enterotoxin production and detection in cheese

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a major causative agent of food poisoning outbreaks due to the ingestion of staphylococcal enterotoxins preformed in foodstuff, especially cheeses, contaminated by enterotoxigenic strains. This chapter will first briefly summarize data on staphylococcal enterotoxins and report the occurrence of staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks involving cheeses at the European Union level. Methods used to detect staphylococcal enterotoxins in food will then be reviewed and followed by an update of the current literature regarding enterotoxin production in various cheese making conditions. Special attention will be given to the recent investigations at the molecular level, which have approached gene expression and enterotoxin production during the cheese manufacturing process. The works summarized here illustrate the complex mechanisms involved in enterotoxinogenesis in cheese matrix and the need to carry out experiments in situ in order to identify some critical points for staphylococcal enterotoxinassociated risk assessment.