Advancing STEC Diagnostics - Workshop Report

Following a workshop held in November 2024, the FPC have been involved in a project to further the understanding of STEC diagnostics and interpretation. We are co-chairing (with Food Standards Scotland) Workstream 4 of four groups that have been set up to discover the tools, techniques and industry action that is required to build knowledge in the food industry.

After the workshop, a report was compiled and below provides details of the activity.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a long-standing and evolving microbial threat affecting food systems, animal health, and human health. Significant foodborne outbreaks continue globally, and food safety and public health actions are impaired because the pathogen is technically challenging to detect and confirm when present in foods, environments, animals, and when infecting humans. STEC diagnostics involve microbiology and molecular testing (commonly for the stx toxin genes) and the STEC diagnostic challenge is not resolved by microbiology testing for indicator bacteria (such as non-toxigenic E. coli) that are used in proxy to suggest contamination has occurred.

The workshop brought together three stakeholder groups - food businesses and their trade associations, government authorities, and testing providers - each committed to addressing an urgent need in the industry sector to conduct accurate, timely and economical testing for STEC in a manner that provides actionable results to impact public health and food safety. To support the workshop and follow-on activities, cross-disciplinary academics working in food safety also actively participated.

A copy of the report can be found here : Advancing STEC Diagnostics Workshop Report V2