Food Microbiology Blog Posts

New research has shown that in addition to protecting Salmonella from heat-processing and sanitizers such as bleach, biofilms preserve the bacteria in extremely dry conditions, and again when the bacteria are subjected to normal digestive processe...

Introduction This test is based on the work done by Wilson (1935) and Milk Regulations 1963. This test is used to check the contamination of bacteria in the sample of milk. It tells us about the viable count of bacteria that may be present in th...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have unveiled a new tool that will help scientists improve the quality of data collected and used to protect consumers from p...

Richard Lawley and Laurie Curtis have written an e-book about food microbiology.  The book provides the key facts about the most important biological agents that must be controlled for food to be safe. The twenty-three chapters of the book each...

Milk undergoes heat treatment -- pasteurisation -- to destroy microorganisms that can cause food spoilage and disease, but certain bacterial strains can survive this heat shock as spores and cause milk to curdle in storage. Researchers in the Milk...

Scientists based at Purdue University have shown that cooling freshly laid eggs for a few seconds adds several weeks to the shelf life of eggs and helps to counter the harmful effects of the Salmonella bacteria. Using a rapid-cooling process...

A research summary from the University of Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame network physicists Mária Ercsey-Ravasz and Zoltán Toroczkai of the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications, in collaboration with food science exp...

Canadian scientists have linked the reasons that some people have allergies to wine to the yeast used to produce the wine. By using genetic engineering, the scientists have developed a strain of yeast which is capable of producing allergy free win...

An interesting video about  Campylobacter Jejuni. Campylobacter Jejuni is a species of curved, helical-shaped, non-spore forming, Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacteria commonly found in animal feces.It is one of the most common causes of huma...

There is an interesting interview with Mike Peck from the Institute of Food Research in Laboratory News. In the interview Mike Peck discusses food safety and touches upon microbiological aspects. Here is an extract: “The Institute of Food Re...

There is an interesting article in Frontiers in Food Microbiology by Marinou et al, titled "Identification and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter species isolated from animal sources". In the study sixteen Campylobacter strains were isol...

The US FDA have published a 2nd edition of the 'Bad Bug Book', expanded to 262 pages. Bad Bug Book 2nd EditionFoodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook The FDA introduction reads: "The second edition of the Bad Bug Book, publ...

Burkholderia cepacia  is regarded as an objectionable microorganism for non-sterile products. However its risk across different product groups varies and the implications can only be properly understood by thought r...

Special Report A research team have discovered a banned antibiotic in animal feed prepared from poultry by-products. The concern is that the antibiotic actually crates resistant bacteria, and some of these bacteria are food pathogens and could...

A short burst of low voltage alternating current can effectively eradicate E. coli bacteria growing on the surface of food  according to a study published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. The technique...

There is an interest article by Maryn McKenna in Scientific American about whether foodborne illness causes long-term health problems, and therefore whether it should be a higher medical and public-health priority than it is now. McKenna notes t...

An outbreak of salmonella has occurred in the UK, infecting 35 people. The cause has been traced to watermelons. Avhigh number of infections caused from a Salmonella bacterium have been detected across the east of England. In total 35 people have...

Over 90% of cases of a common form of food poisoning seen this year were due to people eating undercooked chicken liver pate, often at weddings. This is according to a news report by the BBC and based on an analysis by the Health Protection Agency (...

Following my news item yesterday about cheese contaminated with Listeria, I have stumbled across a news item about some concerns with potentially harmful levels of bacteria in orange juice. In a study in Spain, 43% of samples analysed exceeded t...

A range of cheeses and other dairy products have been recalled on 13th December 2011 due to a risk of food poisoning. The dairy products were all produced from a manufacturer based in Quebec, Canada. As reported on the Digital Journal, the b...