Microbial Contaminants & Contamination Routes in Food Industry

Microbes able to establish and develop in the processing environment and on food products pose a potential problem in terms of food safety and quality. Initially it is the capability to adhere to a surface that gives an advantage towards the majority of microbes being present. Other important capabilities are competitive growth and long survival. Although pathogenic microbes rarely cause the spoilage of foodstuffs (due to their slow or non-existent growth in foods at low temperatures) they and their toxic secondary metabolites naturally form a health risk to the consumer. To guarantee the safety of foodstuffs microbial contamination must be detected and traced as early as possible and also at low levels. In addition, the safety risks related to the microbial contamination must be evaluated as accurately as possible. To establish corrective (and for the future also preventive) actions exact knowledge on the process hygiene level of the production plant is needed. Characteristics of important contaminants, contamination routes and factors enhancing microbial contamination of process line are important items covered in this Microbial contaminants and contamination routes in food industry -seminar by international lecturers and participants who have provided research studies and group work material published in this seminar proceedings.