Staphylococcal enterotoxins and food poisoning: new players in the game

Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are potent superantigenic exotoxins produced by coagulase-positive staphylococci, representing a major cause of foodborne illness worldwide through their ability to induce emesis and immune activation. SEs are mainly detected in contaminated dairy, meat, and ready-to-eat foods, with prevalence rates varying by region and food category. The development of sequencing technologies has led to the description of a large number of “new” SEs, sometimes without proper characterization. Moreover, despite ongoing legislative efforts and the development of new technologies to ensure food safety, many of these newly described SEs remain undetectable in food matrices, thereby posing a significant risk to consumer health. In this short review, we aimed to provide an overview of current knowledge regarding SEs, clarify aspects of SE nomenclature to address existing inconsistencies, and investigate the involvement of newly described SEs in staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks. • Provides an updated overview of staphylococcal enterotoxin diversity and traits • Proposes a revised nomenclature for staphylococcal enterotoxins and their variants • Emphasizes limits of current tools to detect all staphylococcal enterotoxin types • Explores roles of newly described staphylococcal enterotoxins in food poisoning