Food Microbiology, AASTU
Food Microbiology, AASTU
Food Microbiology, AASTU
Chapter-1
Microbiology is the science which study about the
occurrence and significance of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and
algae which are the beginning and ending of intricate food
chains upon which all life depends.
All foods carry microorganisms - from the micro-floral of
raw food or introduce during harvesting, processing,
slaughtering, storages or distribution
Micro-flora has no negative effects on consumers but
sometimes could be manifested as spoilage, food born illness,
transform food chemicals as beneficial –fermentation
Micro-organisms and Food Materials
Diversity of Habitat :
- Found in a very wide range of habitats ( >100 0C - spring
water or active volcano) , frozen environment –polar regions
1. Atmospheric ( Airborne fungus )
2. Soils
3. Water
4. Plants
5. Animals
Log N
Lag phase
Time
Log phase
Stationary phase
Microbial Growth
The lag-phase: There is no apparent growth, adjusts
to the new environment, synthesizes the required
enzymes and repairs any lesions from earlier injury,
e.g. freezing, drying, heating.
The exponential (logarithmic phase): an increase in
cell numbers, represent the organism’s specific growth
rate.
Stationary phase : key nutrients become depleted, or
inhibitory metabolites accumulate, and the culture
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Sources of microorganisms in food
The primary sources of microorganisms in food
include:
1. Soil and water
2. Plant and plant products
3. Food utensils
4. Intestinal tract of man and animals
5. Food handlers
6. Animal hides and skins
7. Air and dust
1.1. Food spoilage
D- value
Z- value
F-value
Decimal reduction Time (D-Value)
Is the time required at any temperature to destroy
90% of the spores or vegetative cells of a given
organism.
The higher the temperature, the faster is the rate
of destruction and the shorter it takes to kill 90%
of the cells.
Example: D-value for Clostridium sporogenes in a
given food at
120oC is 1 minutes,
115oC is 4 minutes,
110oC is 10 minutes.
D- value
A D value can be obtained from a plot of log10
survivors versus time
D-Value cont..
a plot of the log of the number of surviving cells at a
given T against time will give a straight line with
negative slope, k
As the temperature increases, so the slope of the
survivor curve increases
Example: if the D72 of Salmonella Senftenberg 775W
in milk is 1.5 s, then HTST pasteurization (15 s at 72 C)
will produce a 10D reduction in viable numbers
D-Value cont..
The larger the initial number of vegetative cells
or spores, the longer it will take to destroy 90 %
of the cells at a given temperature.
D- value is numerically equal to the number of
minutes required for the survivor curve to
trasverse one log cycle.
Z-value
The Z value: Is the number of degrees the
temperature has to be increased in order to reduce the
thermal death time tenfold.
The z value is relatively constant and depends very
little upon the environment.
For spores of bacteria, the z - value used is 10oC.
Generally psychrotrophs are less heat resistant than
mesophiles, which are less heat resistant than
thermophiles;
Gram-positives are more heat resistant than Gram-
negatives
Z-value
•As the T is increased so the D value decreases. so that plotting log
D against temperature gives a straight line, this would give us
another parameter- Z
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Z- value
The spore killing effect of a heat treatment can be
expressed as a function of temperature and the time
the material has been exposed to that heat.
For example, when it takes;
1 min to kill 90% of the remaining spores at 120oC,
10 min to obtain the same effect at 110oC
F-value
F-value. The F-value express the time taken to expose
food to the same amount of heat required to destroy
spores and vegetative cells of a particular organism using
different temperatures.
Example: A process may have an F121 value of say 4, which
means that its particular combination of times and
temperatures is equivalent to instantaneous heating to
121 C, holding at that temperature for four minutes and
then cooling instantly, it does not even necessarily imply
that the product ever reaches 121 C.
F-value
The F value will depend on the z value of the organism of
concern;
if z=10 C then 1 minute at 111 C has an F121=0.1,
if z=5 C then the F121 value will be 0.01.
This means that one can obtain the same killing effect at
lower temperature, provided the time of exposure is
longer.
It is therefore necessary to specify both the z value and
the temperature when stating F.
For spores z is commonly about 10 C and the F121
determined using this value is designated F0.
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Typical F values for some canned foods
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Foodborne Illness
Commonly referred to as food poisoning
Occurs when a pathogen or its toxin is consumed
Consumers must employ sound preserving, preparation and
cooking techniques to avoid hazards of food products
Estimated millions of cases of food poisoning occur each
year
Vast majority could have been prevented
Foodborne Illness
Food intoxication
Illness resulting from consumption of an exotoxin
produced by organisms growing in food product
When food is ingested it is the toxin responsible for illness not
organism
Common causes of foodborne intoxication are
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Clostridium botulinum
Foodborne Illness
Staphylococcus aureus
Produces toxin that causes nausea and vomiting
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Quantification
The total number of aerobic mesophilic bacteria must
not be greater than 103 cfu/g in a food.
N= np/ R where
N- Number of microorganisms (cfu/ml, cfu/g)
Np -average number of colonies
R -dilution of food sample by which colonies are
counted
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Methods
Traditional method Rapid Method
• Plate counts Direct
• Membrane filtration epifluorescent
• Most probable number
• Direct microscopic filter technique
count (DEFT)
• Dye reduction tests Electrical
• Indicator impedance
Enzyme-linked
immunosorbent
assay(ELISA)
72
1.Plate count method
Standard plate count (SPC)
Aerobic plate count (APC)
“Live”
73
Plate count method
•Diluent
•0.85%NaCl
•0.1% peptone
•Phosphate buffer
•Medium
•Elective medium
•Selective medium
•Pour plate
•General
•Spread plate
•Petri dish plate
•Drop plate •Replication
74
Plate count depends on
Diluent
Food homogenate
Dilution series
Medium
Plating method
Incubate conditions
75
Plate count method
76
Pour plate
77
Spread plate
Number of
colony forming units (cfus)
?????
78
Drop plate
•Small vol.
≈ 20 μL
79
Application of plate count
Check quality
Check condition hygiene
Estimate storage life of products
Determine
Production
Transport
Storage
Determine pathogens
80
Selection of media in food microbiology
Medium Use
Plate count agar Aerobic mesophilic
count
MacConkey broth MPN of coliforms in
water
Brilliant green/Lactose/Bile MPN of coliforms in
broth food
Braid Parker agar Staphylococcus
aureus
Thiosulfate/Bile/Citrate/agar Vibrio sp.
Adam and Moss (2003)
Streak technique
http://www.towson.edu/~cberkowe/medmicro/images/streak.gif
2.Filtration
0.45 μm
Liquid food
•Low number of
MO.
Large volume of
food
•Count
•Sterilize
http://www.biology.lsu.edu/webfac/rgayda/biol1011/Lecture_notesF2004/lecture8.pdf 83
3.Most probable number
Most probable number (MPN)
Multiple tube techniques
• Pathogen
Number too low
• Coliform
• Escherichia coli
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Feacal streptococci
84
Most probable number
Medium Organisms assessed
87
Comparison of sensitivity of method
Method Vol. of Count
sample (ml) (cfu/g)
Direct microscopy 5 x 10-6 2 x 106
Pour plate 1 10
MPN 3 x 10 0.36
+3x1
+ 3 x 0.1
5. Dye-reduction test
Methylene blue
Resazurin (blue)
Leuco-methylene blue
Resorufin (pink)
Triphenyltetrazolium
chloride (leuco) Dihydroresofin
(leuco)
Formazan (red)
89
6.Indicators
• Hygiene indicator
• Cross contamination
•Fresh meat
•Raw milk
•Pasteurized milk
90
1. ATP photometry
ATP : Adenosine triphosphate
Synthesis of new cell
Active transport (uptake of materials from environment)
Movement
Light production
91
ATP photometry
Luciferin + luciferase + ATP + O2
Mg2+
92
ATP photometry
Bacteria cell
1 fg of ATP •Limit of ATP
Yeast cell photometry
102-103 fg ATP/ml
100 fg of ATP
93
ATP photometry
Break down the non-microbial cells in
food
Remove non-microbial ATP using ATPase
Release ATP from bacteria cell
Addition of luciferin & luciferasee
Record light emission (ATP photometry)
94
ATP photometry
Application
Fresh meat
Milk
Starter culture
Test UHT milk
Surface contamination
95
ATP photometry
Disadvantage
Mixed bacteria & yeast cell
Dilution
Remove cell before ATP measured
Filtration
Centrifugation
96
Direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT)
Liquid food • Direct
Filter through membrane microscopy
Acridine orange : • Membrane
fluorescent dye filtration
(fluorochrome) pour • Vol. of sample
through filter
• Filter area
Epifluorescent microscopy
• Area of
Count: manual or microscope field
automatic
• Number of field
97
Direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT)
98
Direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT)
Viable Non-viable
99
Membrane epiflurescent
100
www.teagasc.ie/.../ 4681/eopr-4681.htm
Membrane epiflurescent
101
Electrical impedance method
Impedance : resistance
Conductance
Bacteria growth
----decrease impedance
----increase conductivity
Time
DT
Detection time
106-107 cells/ml
102
Electrical impedance method
Bactometer
Vary temp
Small volume
•Count
Many wells
Many samples •Growth
Automatic
103
Bactometer
104
ELISA
Antigen – conjugate enzyme
Antibody – conjugate enzyme
Toxin
Pathogen •Staphylocaccal
•Salmonella •Botulinum toxin
•Listeria •Mycotoxin
•S. aureus
105
Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay
Free toxin
Antibody
Antigen(toxin)
Enzyme Labeled toxin Microtitration plate
Alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
Horse Radish Peroxidase (HRP)
Substrate
Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) + 30% H2O2
Azinobis sulphonic acid (ABTS)
o-phenylinediamine (OPD)
p-nitrophenyl phosphate
106
107
“ELISA”
108
Sandwich-ELISA
E. coli Salmonella
antibody
Antibody-conjugate
enzyme
Colorless Substrate
Color
109
Aflatoxin
A. flavus
A. nomius
flavus A. tamarri
A. parasiticus
“Aflatoxin”
Aspergillus toxin
110
http://msa.ars.usda.gov/la/srrc/aflatoxin/afcrsp.htm
111
Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay
Free toxin
Antibody
Antigen(toxin)
Enzyme Labeled toxin Microtitration plate
Alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
Horse Radish Peroxidase (HRP)
Substrate
Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) + 30% H2O2
Azinobis sulphonic acid (ABTS)
o-phenylinediamine (OPD)
p-nitrophenyl phosphate
112
E E
E E
Antibody
Substrate
114
Direct Competitive ELISA
Conc. 0 5 10 15 20
(ppb)
Aflatoxin
E E
115
Direct Competitive ELISA
ppb 0 5 10 15 A B C
Absorbant
Concentration
117
PCR
118
119