To date, the virulence of VBNC pathogens has been proven to be recovered or maintained after resuscitation. Resuscitated VBNC cells such as L. monocytogenes (Cappelier et al., 2007) and S. typhi (Zeng et al., 2012) retain their virulence and cause varying degrees of damage to mice, leading even to death. Moreover, the resuscitated VBNC pathogens may be involved in several foodborne outbreaks, such as E. coli O157:H7 (Makino et al., 2000), E. coli O104:H4 (Aurass et al., 2011), and Salmonella (Asakura et al., 2002). Although there is no clear evidence to prove that resuscitated foodborne pathogens can directly cause human diseases, their security risks to public health cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors that can promote resuscitation and thus taking effective measures to prevent the occurrence of food hazards.