Compared with culturable cells, VBNC cells have greater physical, chemical, and antibiotic resistance, which might be due to their lower metabolic activity and stronger cell wall strengthened resulting from the increased peptidoglycan cross-linking (Signoretto et al., 2000). To study the VBNC state, Nowakowska and Oliver (2013) developed a model organism from V. vulnificus. Using this model, VBNC cells of V. vulnificus can withstand a variety of stresses while dormant, including high doses of antibiotics, toxic heavy metals, high temperatures, high salinity, ethanol, and acid. In terms of chemical stress, a similar study conducted in V. parahaemolyticus showed that VBNC cells were resistant H2O2 and low salinity but remained sensitive to bile salts (Wong and Wang, 2004). In terms of antibiotic stress, the VBNC state of several foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157, S. aureus, V. vulnificus, and C. jejuni have been found to be resistant to several antimicrobials (Ramamurthy et al., 2014). S. aureus can enter the VBNC state in infectious biofilms and the presence of vancomycin or quinupristin/dalfopristin can inadvertently induce a true VBNC state or persistence in S. aureus cells embedded in biofilms, suggesting a role for staphylococcal biofilms in recurrent infections (Pasquaroli et al., 2013). During food pasteurization and preservation processes, certain bacterial cells can be induced to enter the VBNC state (Zhao F. et al., 2013; Kramer and Muranyi, 2014). In general, VBNC cells are resistant to multiple antimicrobials, which may cause treatment failure at times (Hu and Coates, 2012). In fact, a recent study found that foods subjected to antimicrobial treatment harbored considerable numbers of VBNC cells (Anvarian et al., 2016). The presence of VBNC cells is considered a threat to human health and food safety due to the shortened shelf life that cause early spoilage of food products (Ayrapetyan and Oliver, 2016). Although VBNC cells of foodborne pathogens have been shown to resist a range of stresses, with respect to food safety, more research examined VBNC cell resistance to specific food treatments, such as special processing, preservation and packaging techniques, is warranted (Ayrapetyan and Oliver, 2016).