# Foodborne Pathogens in High-Salt, High-Sugar, and High-Fat Foods: Matrix Effects on Persistence, Adaption and Inactivation for Food Safety

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat foods can still harbor dangerous bacteria, complicating food safety efforts.

## Contribution

The paper compiles outbreak data and explores how food composition affects pathogen survival and inactivation effectiveness.

## Key findings

- High-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat foods can support survival of pathogens like Salmonella and Listeria.
- Salt can both inhibit and sensitize pathogens, while sugar and fat often protect them during inactivation.
- Understanding these interactions is key to improving food safety in extreme food matrices.

## Abstract

High-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat foods are popular among consumers because of their distinctive sensory qualities and extended shelf stability. Although these matrices have long been regarded as inhospitable to microbial proliferation, numerous outbreaks linked to salted meats and fish, chocolate, tahini, peanut butter, and cheese demonstrate that such environments can nevertheless support prolonged pathogen survival and complicate inactivation efforts. This review compiles reported outbreaks and recalls associated with these products and shows that Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus) are the principal pathogens involved. It further examines key factors shaping survival and the mechanisms underlying pathogen persistence in these extreme matrices. Growing evidence also indicates that elevated levels of salt, sugar, and fat can modulate the effectiveness of inactivation technologies: salt may exert both inhibitory and sensitizing effects, whereas sugar and fat generally provide protective advantages during treatment. Clarifying these matrix-dependent interactions is critical for designing optimized multi-hurdle preservation approaches that ensure microbial safety while maintaining product quality in extreme foods.