Literature and data on persistence of microbiological hazards in food production and processing environments

These data have been gathered by members of the EFSA Working Group on persistence of microbiological hazards (EFSA-Q-2022-00217) dealing with the scientific opinion on the persistence of microbiological hazards in food and feed production and processing environments (https://doi.org/10.2903/ j.efsa.2024.8521).

The following sectors are considered: (i) feed for food animal production, (ii) meat processing (including slaughterhouses and processing plants), (iii) fish and seafood processing, (iv) dairy processing, (v) egg and egg products processing, (vi) fruit and vegetable processing (including herbs), including Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)/production through indoor hydroponic operations and (vii) low moisture food (LMF) processing.

The search strategy followed is described in detail in Appendix A while the search string can be found in Annex A.

The supplementary files to the abovementioned EFSA opinion include (i) the reviews that were found eligible at full text level (file "EFSA-2024-8521_Food production and processing_reviews") and (ii) the extracted data from the primary research studies (file "EFSA-2024-8521_Food production and processing_primary research studies") obtained through literature searches for the assessment of the persistence of microbiological hazards in food production and processing environments.

Similarly, files are included of (iii) the reviews that were found eligible at full text level (file "EFSA-2024-8521_Feed production and processing_reviews") and (ii) the extracted data from the primary research studies (file "EFSA-2024-8521_Feed production and processing_primary research studies") obtained through literature searches for the assessment of the persistence of microbiological hazards in feed production and processing environments.