Dr Mark Tamplin the manager of ComBase has issued an update. This is summarised below.

• A new search feature has been added to the Browser - now, instead of sorting through hundreds of records to find a specific food type, simply add Food name as a search field and enter the food that you are interested in. For example, type ' lettuce' in the Food name field.
• Each record now indicates the date that the record was added to ComBase.
• An improved and simpler data donation template, plus instructional videos, have been added to the Data Submission page.
• ComBase will award $1000 to the person who authors/co-authors the largest number of data donations. The award can be used to attend the IAFP Annual Meeting in the USA, or the IAFP European Symposium. The eligibility period for data donations is 30 March 2018 - 1 April 2019. ComBase will announce the winner on 1 May 2019.

ComBase can be contacted at booth #208 at the IAFP Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City.

Recent data donations to ComBase include:

• Listeria monocytogenes in cut cantaloupe, honey dew and water melons (Danyluk)
• Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli in cheddar, gouda, feta and brie cheeses (Kocharunchitt)
• Listeria monocytogenes on frozen-thawed corn, peas, shrimp and snowcrab (Kataoka)
• Variability of thermal resistance of Listeria monocytogenes strains (Aryani)
• Bacillus cereus in reconstituted infant formula (Buss da Silva)
• Clostridium perfringens in cooked-cooled beef-pork sausages (Tilkens)
• Clostridium perfringens in cooked-cooled turkey breasts (Kennedy)
• Effect of pomegranate powder on heat inactivation of Escherichia coli O104:H4 in ground chicken (Juneja)
• Salmonella spp. reduction in meat jerky with temperature, potassium sorbate, pH, and water activity as controlling factors (Juneja)
• Listeria monocytogenes in broccoli, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, yellow onions, green olives-fresh, green olives-canned, black olives-canned, cantaloupe-flesh, cantaloupe-rind, avocado, cucumbers, and button mushrooms (Salazar)
• Listeria monocytogenes in blue crab (Parveen)

For tutorials on how to use ComBase, refer to their YouTube channel and Combase sites on  LinkedIn Group, LinkedIn Company, Facebook, and Twitter.

Coming soon…

A Data Wizard will be released in a few months that will greatly simplify data donations

If you have suggestions for how ComBase can be improved, please contact Dr Tamplin at contact@combase.cc .