Modern Food Microbiology

Modern Food microbiology is the study of the microorganisms that inhabit, create, or contaminate food. Microbes are being used for the production of foods, food supplements and food ingredients. Microorganisms are widely used in fermentative production, processing, and preservation of various kinds of foods and beverages. Microorganisms are also responsible for food spoilage and food poisoning which result in loss of food products and also cause damage to human and animal health causing health and economic losses. Studying the food microbes and the effects of microbial contamination is vital to various food safety, production, processing, preservation, and storage aspects. Developments in the methodology for the identification of microorganisms and in the area of predictive microbiology are contributing to a considerable expansion in the number of computerized databases in use by food microbiologists. At an individual laboratory level, the requirements of good laboratory practice have also led to an increase in the amount of microbiological data being stored on computers. However, the most significant developments are in the area of predictive microbiology databases. National and international collaborative research programmes are currently contributing to such databases, some of which will be made available for use by industry and other interested parties for research and microbiological risk assessment. “This book provides a detailed, sophisticated exploration of the rich science of Modern food microbiology. It balances the importance of the practical and applied needs of food microbiology with the inherent needs for scientific exploration of the fundamental issues of genetics, growth, survival, and control of prokaryotic and eukaryotic foodborne agents.”