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Updated: May 13, 2026

Enrichment and Detection of Clostridium perfringens Toxinotypes in Retail Food Samples
Published on: October 18, 2019
Contamination of ready-to-eat raw vegetables with Clostridium difficile in France
Catherine Eckert1, Béatrice Burghoffer2, Frédéric Barbut1
1National Reference Laboratory for C. difficile, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Paris, France.
Abstract:
The presence of Clostridium difficile in food like shellfish, vegetables and meat has been reported in several publications during the past few years. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of ready-to-eat raw vegetables contaminated with C. difficile in France. One hundred and four ready-to-eat salads and vegetables were studied. Toxigenic C. difficile strains were isolated in three samples (2.9 %): two ready-to-eat salads (one heart of lettuce and one lamb's lettuce salad) and one portion of pea sprouts. The strains belonged to three different PCR ribotypes: 001, 014/020/077 and 015. The detection thresholds for vegetative cells and spores cells varied between 1 and 3 c.f.u. in 20 g salad and between 6 and 15 c.f.u. in 20 g salad, respectively, for the method employed.
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