The presence of VBNC cells in food is widely documented (Rowan et al., 2015). Food is frequently exposed to a complex environmental system, in which physiochemical characteristics (pH, aw, disinfectant and chemical composition) and environmental factors (high pressure CO2, elevated temperatures, storage temperature and time, decontamination treatments, pasteurization and packaging under modified atmosphere) act simultaneously on contaminating bacteria leading to the VBNC state. This alone poses a significant risk to the public health and food safety, as these bacteria cannot be detected by commonly used techniques (Fakruddin et al., 2013). This risk is made even greater by the fact that VBNC cells can resuscitate within the human host (Ayrapetyan and Oliver, 2016). Furthermore, studies have proven that VBNC cells of foodborne pathogens, continue to produce virulence factors in food (Dinu and Bach, 2011). These studies indicate that more effective methods for detection of foodborne pathogen must be employed, to tackle the threat posed by VBNC bacteria with regard to public health and food safety.