Food Virology

ABSTRACT

Viruses are transmitted via foods in the form of very small particles that cannot multiply, but may be inactivated, in foods. Some of these viruses occur in meat, milk, and other products from infected animals and have the potential to cause very costly animal diseases; these are essentially not a threat to the health of people who eat the food. Foodborne viral diseases in humans are principally hepatitis A and the gastroenteritis caused by Norwalk-like viruses, which are shed in human feces and contaminated foods from the hands of infected people or via sewage. These viruses rank high as causes of reported foodborne disease in the USA. Virus in foods may be inactivated by heat and a few other means before the food is eaten. Methods to detect viruses in foods are relatively unsatisfactory and are too inconvenient to be used in routine monitoring of the food supply. Certain bacteriophages are being evaluated as indicators of probable contamination of foods by human enteric viruses; the tests are relatively quick and easy to perform, but lack of specificity may be a problem.