International Stakeholder Workshop on Best Practice for the Control of Human Pathogenic Microorganisms in Plant Production Systems, Dublin 2019

Report compiled by Fiona Brennan (Teagasc), Kaye Burgess (Teagasc), Mieke Uyttendaele (University of Gent), Nicola Holden (SRUC), Grace Choto (AHDB), Ana Allende (CSIC), Adam Schikora (Julius Kühn Institute) and Michael Gaffney (Teagasc).

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This report emanates from a workshop that was organised by the HUPLANTcontrol COST action (CA16110; Control of Human Pathogenic Microorganisms in Plant Production Systems; Wp1, Wp4 & Wp5; https://huplantcontrol.igzev.de/work-plan/), and brought together international researchers, regulators, growers and other stakeholders focused on examining best practice for the control of human pathogenic microorganisms in plant production systems.

The workshop was hosted by Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Dublin on the 2nd and 3rd September 2019. Participants comprised a multidisciplinary group of international scientific experts, including researchers in food microbiology, plant microbiology, soil microbiology, microbial ecology, agricultural production, horticulture, microbial pathogenicity and virulence, risk assessment and food safety management.

The participants recognised the positive effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on human health and the gut microbiome. There was also an acknowledgement of the substantial improvement of understanding of the plant microbiome brought about by technological advances in microbiology in recent years, which has enhanced our capacity to examine microbial communities on plants, including the occasional occurrence of human pathogens.