Approaches to Combat Foodborne and Spoilage Spore-Forming Bacteria

Foodborne pathogens and spore-forming bacteria remain among the most persistent and significant challenges to global food safety and quality. While foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Campylobacter spp., and Clostridium perfringens are well recognized for their public health burden, spore-forming bacteria-including members of the families Bacillaceae, Paenibacillaceae, Thermoactinomycetaceae, Alicyclobacillaceae, and the class Clostridia—pose additional hurdles by causing widespread spoilage, economic losses, and consumer distrust. These microorganisms exhibit remarkable resilience, with spores capable of surviving extreme processing conditions, making their control across the food supply chain especially complex.

Current issues in food safety and quality revolve around both preventing foodborne illnesses and addressing spoilage. For pathogens, this involves identifying contamination routes, ensuring effective inactivation strategies, and reducing antimicrobial resistance threats. For spore formers, the focus lies in unravelling survival mechanisms, biofilm formation, and contamination points during agricultural and post-harvest stages. Despite technological advances such as aseptic packaging sterilization, ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing, and digital monitoring systems, challenges remain in effectively managing both categories of microbial threats.

This Research Topic aims to advance understanding and foster innovation in tackling foodborne pathogens and spoilage spore-forming bacteria. Emphasis will be placed on identifying contamination routes, exploring agricultural and processing interventions, and developing novel strategies to mitigate risks in diverse food systems.

To gather further insights, this Research Topic encompasses a broad range of themes, each contributing to our understanding and management of food spoilage issues. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Routes of contamination and introduction of pathogens and spore formers into the food chain, and mitigation opportunities at the agricultural and post-harvest levels
• Advances in aseptic packaging, sterilization, and validation for extended and novel food processes
• Efficacy and validation of processing and formulation interventions targeting both foodborne pathogens and spore formers
• Influence of food matrix and product formulation on pathogen survival, spore germination, growth, and spoilage potential
• Development and application of clean label preservatives, natural antimicrobials, and hurdle technologies for microbial control
• Control limits, risk assessment, and predictive modelling for pathogen and spore survival in UHT and shelf-stable products
• Biofilm formation by pathogens and spore formers, along with emerging mitigation strategies in food processing environments
• Antimicrobial resistance trends and their implications for foodborne pathogen and spore-former control
• Integration of AI, automation, and digital validation tools to enhance detection, monitoring, and efficiency in food safety management

This multidisciplinary topic encourages contributions spanning microbiology, food processing, risk assessment, digital technologies, and One Health perspectives. By bringing together research on both foodborne pathogens and spoilage spore-forming bacteria, we aim to support industry and scientific communities in developing resource-efficient, safe, and sustainable food systems. Contemporary challenges demand contemporary solutions—together, let us strengthen the science and practice of microbial control to protect public health and global food security.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Foodborne pathogens, spoilage, spore formers, food safety, food processing, Bacillaceae, Clostridia, aseptic packaging, UHT processing, biofilms

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.