introduction to food microbiology

Food microbiology is the study of the microorganisms that inhabit, create, or contaminate food, including the study of microorganisms causing food spoilage. Organisms are studied in food microbiology are:

·         BACTERIA

·         FUNGI—molds and yeasts

·         ALGAE—dinoflagellates/shellfish

·         PROTOZOA—amoeba, Giardia

·         Viruses—Hepatitis/shellfish

·         Prions 

·         Helminthes—worms

Application of food microbiology

It provide numerous application. Some are below:

1.    Food safety - Food safety is a major focus of food microbiology involving the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness.

Foodborne pathogens are the leading causes of illness and death in less developed countries killing approximately 1.8 million people developed countries foodborne pathogens are responsible for millions of cases of infectious gastrointestinal diseases each year, costing billions of dollars in medical care and lost productivity.

2.    Fermented food - In some cases, the growth of microorganisms in food can be put to good use for the production and preservation of various types of food. Fermentation is arguably the earliest example of biotechnology and refers to the metabolic process by which microbes produce energy in the absence of oxygen and other terminal electron acceptors in the electron transport chain such as fumarate or nitrate & in result we get beneficial food products.

In ancient times, it was considered as a way to both preserve food and to retain nutritional value.

3.    Microbial biopolymers - Several microbially produced polymers are used in the food industry. For example: Alginate - Alginates can be used as thickening agents. Although listed here under the category 'Microbial polysaccharides', commercial alginates are currently only produced by extraction from brown seaweeds such as Laminaria hyperborea or L. japonica.

           

CURRENT STATUS

In the early 20th century, studies continued to understand the association and importance of microorganisms, especially pathogenic bacteria in food. Specific methods were developed for their isolation and identification. The importance of sanitation in the handling of food to reduce contamination by microorganisms was recognized. Specific methods were studied to prevent growth as well as to destroy the spoilage and pathogenic bacteria. There was also some interest to isolate beneficial bacteria associated with food fermentation, especially dairy fermentation, and study their characteristics. However, after the 1950s, food microbiology entered a new era. Availability of basic information on the physiological, biochemical, and biological characteristics of diverse types of food, microbial interactions in food environments and microbial physiology, biochemistry, genetics, and immunology has helped open new frontiers in food microbiology. Among these are: 1, 6–8

1.   Food Fermentation/Probiotics

•        Development of strains with desirable metabolic activities by genetic transfer among strains

•        Development of bacteriophage-resistant lactic acid bacteria

•        Metabolic engineering of strains for overproduction of desirable metabolites

•        Development of methods to use lactic acid bacteria to deliver immunity proteins

•        Sequencing genomes of important lactic acid bacteria and bacteriophages for better understanding of their characteristics

•        Food biopreservation with desirable bacteria and their antimicrobial metabolites

•        Understanding of important characteristics of probiotic bacteria and development of desirable strains

•        Effective methods to produce starter cultures for direct use in food processing

2.   Food Spoilage

•        Identification and control of new spoilage bacteria associated with the current changes in food processing and preservation methods

•        Spoilage due to bacterial enzymes of frozen and refrigerated foods with extended shelf life

•        Development of molecular methods (nanotechnology) to identify metabolites of spoilage bacteria and predict potential shelf life of foods

•        Importance of environmental stress on the resistance of spoilage bacteria to antimicrobial preservatives

3.   Foodborne Diseases

•        Methods to detect emerging foodborne pathogenic bacteria from contaminated foods

•        Application of molecular biology techniques (nanotechnology) for rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in food and environment

•        Effective detection and control methods of foodborne pathogenic viruses

•        Transmission potentials of prion diseases from food animals to humans

•        Importance of environmental stress on the detection and destruction of pathogens

•        Factors associated with the increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens in food

•        Adherence of foodborne pathogens on food and equipment surfaces

•        Mechanisms of pathogenicity of foodborne pathogens

•        Effective methods for epidemiology study of foodborne diseases

•        Control of pathogenic parasites in food

4.    Miscellaneous

•        Application of hazard analysis of critical control points (HACCP) in food production, processing, and preservation

•        Novel food-processing technologies

•        Microbiology of unprocessed and low-heat-processed ready-to-eat foods

•        Microbial control of foods from farm to table (total quality management)

•        Food safety legislation