Handbook Of Microbiological Criteria For Foods

This invaluable handbook provides practical working guidance for those involved in producing, using and interpreting microbiological criteria in the food and catering industries and brings together microbiological criteria derived from the practical experience of the authors, and existing guidelines and standards. Written by professional food microbiologists with wide experience and backed by the independent and dependable reputation of the Institute of Food Science & Technology, it discusses definitions, derivation and limitations of microbiological criteria, and sets out tables for different commodities and technologies. This latest edition has been updated to reflect recently developed microbiological methods, changes to taxonomy, inclusion of recently emerged pathogens and a brief description of recently developed processing technologies.

Food plays an essential part in everyday life. Food should be tasty, healthy, sustainable and preferably not too expensive. But food should also be safe and with sufficient guarantees on maintaining good quality aspects until the end of shelf life. The various actors in the food supply chain have an interest in verifying the expected quality and safety by means of microbiological analyses of food. Measurement brings knowledge and microbiological guidelines help in the decision-making process for judging the acceptability of food or food production processes. The present handbook provides microbiological guidelines and current applicable EU legal criteria (status 1.1.2018) for a wide range of food categories (dairy, meat, seafoods, plant-based foods, bakery products, composite foods, shelf-stable food, water) and subcategories therein, based upon the type of food processing and intrinsic characteristics of the foods. This book can be consulted to provide quick answers on the expected microbiological contamination of foodstuff. It can help in interpretation of test results in assessing good (hygienic) practices in the production of food, determining the shelf life and ensuring food safety. The handbook also presents definitions of the wide variety of foodstuffs available and some reflections on, in particular, food safety issues or the on-going debate for some food items in assessing microbial quality. This book provides crucial information about food safety, for the use of students and professionals. EXTRACT "First we eat, then we do everything else" M.F.K. Fisher Food plays an important part in everyday life. But when being a food scientist or in the food business, food gets to be an even bigger part of your life. Our team at the Food Microbiology and Food Preservation research group (FMFP-UGent) at Ghent University during its academic tasks in education, research, scientific activities at committees, but also in interaction with many food companies and stakeholders in the food supply chain in projects or contract work, has built up considerable expertise on the microbiological analysis of a large variety of foodstuffs. Being situated in Ghent, and thus close to Brussels, the heart of Europe, we intrinsically have to understand and deal with legal EU criteria or action limits. The latter is the reason why this book is mainly oriented towards inclusion or making reference to EU legal microbiological criteria for foodstuffs as well. ABOUT THE AUTHORS The main author, Prof. Mieke Uyttendaele, leads, together with Prof. Frank Devlieghere, the Food Microbiology and Food Preservation Research Group (FMFP-UGent) at Ghent University, Belgium. Her teaching and research area covers aspects of microbiological analysis of foods, food safety and food hygiene. She has built over twenty years of experience by executing, initiating and coordinating various projects in this research discipline dealing with sampling and testing to collect baseline data on the microbial contamination of foods, looking into the virulence of food-borne pathogens, elaborating challenge testing to study the behavior of food-borne pathogens. All this information serves as an input for quality assurance and microbial risk assessment to support food safety decision-making and setting microbiological criteria. She was/is the promotor of more than 25 Ph.D students (including EU and non-EU citizens). Throughout her career, Prof. Uyttendaele has published more than 270 peer reviewed scientific papers, authored several book chapters and presented at numerous international Conferences/Workshops. Throughout the years she has also used her scientific expertise in interpretation of test results for analyses obtained in routine monitoring or analysis executed at the food service lab at FMFP-UGent.

Responding to an estimated 14 million cases of food-borne disease that occur every year in the United States alone, the Food and Drug Administration and US Department of Agriculture have begun implementing new regulations and guidance for the microbial testing of foods. Similarly, Europe and other regions are implementing stricter oversight, as foodborne pathogens that cause deadly diseases such as e. coli 0157:H7 have raised the stakes everywhere. Food safety scientists have acted on this growing public health risk by developing improved media for the cultivation of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, much of it geared toward specific rapid detection. Reflecting the development of these new media and the latest FDA recommendations, the second edition of the Handbook of Microbiological Media for the Examination of Foodprovides an essential resource for anyone involved with the monitoring of both food production and post-production quality control. Organized alphabetically by medium, the expanded edition of this highly respected handbookincludes – · Descriptions of nearly 1,400 media including those recommended by the FDA, as well as media used elsewhere in the world · Concise and lucid instructions for the preparation and uses of each of the media · Cross-referenced indexing that allows the media to be found by name or specific microorganism of interest · Descriptions of expected results as they apply to microorganisms of importance for the examination of foods · Common synonyms for the various media and listings of compositions, so that alternate media an be effectively employed when needed Compiled by Ronald M. Atlas, a world-renowned researcher and author known for his pioneering work in pathogen detection, the Handbook of Microbiological Media for the Examination of Food, Second Edition, provides microbiologists with an essential tool for safeguarding public health.

The main approaches to the investigation of food microbiology in the laboratory are expertly presented in this, the third edition of the highly practical and well-established manual. The new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of the latest legislation and technological advances in food microbiology, and offers a step-by-step guide to the practical microbiological examination of food in relation to public health problems. It provides ‘tried and tested’ standardized procedures for official control laboratories and those wishing to provide a competitive and reliable food examination service. The Editors are well respected, both nationally and internationally, with over 20 years of experience in the field of public health microbiology, and have been involved in the development of food testing methods and microbiological criteria. The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) has provided microbiological advice and scientific expertise in the examination of food samples for more than half a century. The third edition of Practical Food Microbiology: Includes a rapid reference guide to key microbiological tests for specific foods Relates microbiological assessment to current legislation and sampling plans Includes the role of new approaches, such as chromogenic media and phage testing Discusses both the theory and methodology of food microbiology Covers new ISO, CEN and BSI standards for food examination Includes safety notes and hints in the methods

The Handbook of Microbiological Media for the Examination of Food describes more than 1,000 media used to cultivate microorganisms from foods. It also includes all the media recommended by the Food and Drug Administration for the detection of microorganisms in foods.

This is a completely revised edition, including new material, from 'Culture Media for Food Microbiology' by J.E.L. Corry et al., published in Progress in Industrial Microbiology, Volume 34, Second Impression 1999. Written by the Working Party on Culture Media, of the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene, this is a handy reference for microbiologists wanting to know which media to use for the detection of various groups of microbes in food, and how to check their performance. The first part comprises reviews, written by international experts, of the media designed to isolate the major groups of microbes important in food spoilage, food fermentations or food-borne disease. The history and rationale of the selective agents, and the indicator systems are considered, as well as the relative merits of the various media. The second part contains monographs on approximately 90 of the most useful media. The first edition of this book has been frequently quoted in standard methods, especially those published by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the European Standards Organisation (CEN), as well as in the manuals of companies manufacturing microbiological media. In this second edition, almost all of the reviews have been completely rewritten, and the remainder revised. Approximately twelve monographs have been added and a few deleted. This book will be useful to anyone working in laboratories examining food - industrial, contract, medical, academic or public analyst, as well as other microbiologists, working in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and clinical (medical and veterinary) areas - particularly with respect to quality assurance of media and methods in relation to laboratory accreditation.