New Zealand produces a range of ready-to-eat dried meat products where food safety often relies on a cook or fermentation step. However, some dried products use water activity, pH or added ingredients to ensure food safety. There is little documented proof to support validation of the food safety aspects of the drying process. This review determines if any existing models can be used to validate this process and provide guidance or a predictive model for the inactivation of pathogens of concern.

Update of a report made in 2011, with surveillance data for the 2013 year and updated estimates.

There is variability in the methods used by clinical laboratories in New Zealand to isolate and
identify the pathogens (Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp.,
Yersinia enterocolitica or Y. pseudotuberculosis, and verocytotoxigenic E. coli
(VTEC)/shigatoxin-producing E. coli (STEC)) being investigated in this study, but the
methods do not appear to have changed significantly over the last five years.

Evaluation of viable but not culturable (VNC) state of various foodborne pathogens.

Expert elicitation-derived estimates of foodborne proportions of enteric illnesses