Grant Agreements funded by EFSA made it possible to recruit a junior reviewer – Mariem Ayed – and a Computer Engineer – Lucas Silva, to dedicate to the data feeding and the maintenance and improvement of the Pathogens-In-Foods database. Lucas Silva is carrying out his Masters in Informatics at IPB, conducting research towards automated data analytics and interpretation of PIF contained data.
A new catalogue has been created in PIF! The NEMATODES catalogue was launched on 31st December 2024, containing occurrence data on Anisakis, Contracaecum, Phocanema, Pseudoterranova, and other parasitic genus such as Opisthorchis, Metorchis, Dibothriocephalus, Bolbosoma, Corynosoma, Kudoa, and Cryptocotyle, in fishery products whether wild or farmed. To date, the Nematodes catalogue comprises over 5000 data entries.
The study "Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Prevalence of Anisakids in Aquaculture in European Countries" was presented as a scientific communication at the International Conference on Smart Systems, Renewable Energy, Traditional Foods, and Environmental Protection (ICSREFE24), held from May 29-31, 2024, at the Higher School of Technology of Agadir, Ibn Zohr University. The presentation highlighted how this comprehensive review effectively compiles data on the prevalence of Anisakids in aquaculture across various European countries.
Pathogens in Foods (PIF) was presented as a scientific communication tool at Scicom Pt 2024, held on May 8-10 in Braga. The presentation demonstrated how PIF effectively gathers data on the prevalence and enumeration of different pathogens in food matrices and how this tool can be used by researchers in the food safety field.
Since December 2023, data on the occurrence of Anisakid nematodes (from 2010- 2023), including Anisakis, Contracaecum, and Pseudoterranova, has been extracted from 265 publications focusing on wild fish produced and commercialized both within and outside Europe. Additionally, data from 11 publications concerning Aquaculture in European countries has been collected, with 9 publications providing data on both Aquaculture and wild sources. Furthermore, a dedicated catalogue for these nematodes has been added to the Pathogens in Foods database, intended to facilitate easy accessibility and retrieval of the available data.
Marcos Pereira who serves as PIF Informatician since January 2023 has concluded his MSc with the dissertation of the thesis: “Development of a database migration and compatibility system”, which was based on the re-structuring and migration of the PIF database. PIF researchers congratulate him on his success.
Microbiological occurrence data of PIF has been successfully migrated to a new food categorisation system based on FoodEx2. Likewise, the terminology of PIF used in all catalogues has been aligned to that of EFSA.
Grant Agreements funded by EFSA made it possible to recruit three junior scientists – Sabrina ElMetennani, Laís Carvalho and Zineb Bradai – to dedicate to the Pathogens-In-Foods database. They are responsible for performing systematic reviews and data extraction, guided by the senior researchers, and will be carrying out their Masters research under PIF experts’ supervision.
The Pathogens-in-Foods database will be extended with occurrence data on Vibrio spp. in seafood produced and/or commercialised in Europe; and with data on parasites of public health importance in fishery products from farmed and wild caught fish worldwide. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will financially support these actions under the Agreement GP/EFSA/BIOHAW/2023/05 for the upcoming 3 years.
The new protocol for systematic review and the plan for harmonisation of the current food categorisation to EFSA’s FoodEx2 catalogue was explained by Dr. Vasco Cadavez in the presentation entitled “Discovering Pathogens-in-Foods: resources and applications of a database on occurrence data of foodborne pathogens in European-marketed foods” at the International Conference on Predictive Modelling in Food (ICPMF12), which took place on the 13-16th September 2023 at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. The presentation can be found on the PIF Zenodo Community PIF Zenodo Community.
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