食品行业微生物学的贡献

食品微生物学涵盖了：

Food spoilage by different kinds of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi
Testing of Food/ food products for microbial contamination
Methods to be employed for prevention of food spoilage and preservation techniques
Use of various microorganisms in production of various food products

Microorganism Growth and Food Spoilage

Different food products provide ideal growth conditions for microorganisms. Microbial growth is controlled by intrinsic factors like nutrients, pH, moisture content, physical structure of the food and/ or extrinsic factors like temperature, relative humidity, gases (CO2,O2). Microorganisms thus grow in optimum conditions provided by external and internal factors, resulting in spoilage and degradation of the food product resulting in a sour, foul-smelling or fungus-covered inedible mass. Microbial growth in foods can also cause visible changes like change in colour, deposition of powdery growth, effervescences on food surface, etc. Microbial contamination of food can occur at any point in the food production process: growth, harvesting, transport, storage, or final preparation. Spoilage also can occur if foods are not stored properly. Meat and dairy products are rich in protein and fat serves as an ideal environment for microbial spoilage resulting in proteolysis and putrefaction of the food products. Vegetables and fruits have a much lower protein and fat content and undergo a different kind of spoilage.

Microbiological testing of Food

There are basically two main strategies for testing food products.

微生物质量的确定：这是通过确定食品样本的总可行计数来完成的。这包括 - 总细菌计数（TBC），总酵母和霉菌计数（TYMC）。该测试提供了有关食物微生物质量的详细信息
Determination of Food Safety: This test includes analysis and testing of food samples for food pathogens belonging to group Enterobacteria, Enterococci, coliforms, E. coli and any other pathogens as Pseudomonas sp. Clostridia, Salmonella, Bacillus spp, Staphylococcus, lactic acid bacteria, Salmonella, Listeria, yeasts and molds etc. .

Control of Microbial Growth and Food Preservation

打开包装食品或食物份量后，包装过程中存在任何微生物种群，可能会发生食物的污染。为了确保长期保存和储存的食物的保质期至关重要的是消除或减少腐败和引起疾病的微生物的种群，并保持食品的微生物学质量，并具有适当的存储和包装。食品中的微生物生长可以通过各种方法控制。

通过过滤，离心等物理方法去除微生物
Thermal treatment as Refrigeration, freezing, partial or complete heat inactivation of microorganisms (pasteurization and canning)
通过冷冻干燥（冻干）减少或去除水分/水含量
Addition of chemical preservatives
使用电离（伽马射线）和非电离（UV）辐射
Addition of substances such as bacteriocins based inhibition to foods to control food-borne pathogens

微生物in Food Production

从远古时代开始，微生物已被广泛用于乳酸，丙酸和乙醇发酵。
They are characteristically used in production of about 2,000 distinct varieties of cheese throughout the world.
它们用于使用多种碳水化合物底物的不同酒精饮料的生产。
微生物可用于将生食物转化为泡菜，香肠，调味料等。
微生物can themselves be used as a food source. The most common example is fungus (Agaricusbisporus) commonly as mushrooms.
Probiotics are being used successfully with poultry.

Points to remember

大多数食品和食品为微生物生长提供了绝佳的环境，从而导致食物变质和降解。
各种固有和外在因素，例如食物的pH，糖和盐含量，水分含量，温度等是食品中微生物的生长。
微生物可以通过多种方式破坏肉类，乳制品，水果，蔬菜和罐头食品。
Microbial testing of food involves the quality and safety analysis of the food samples.
Microbial contamination of food can be prevented by various methods as physical removal of microorganisms, thermal treatment, freeze drying, addition of chemicals, radiation etc.
微生物用于生产各种发酵产品，奶酪，调味料，咸菜，酒精饮料等。