Techniques in Microbiology

Abstract

The increased awareness among consumers for the safety of food products and the concomitant pressure for fresh and appropriate forms of products has led to the adventofadvance food safety practices in the food industry. Besides, the relatively high occurrence of outbreaks of foodborne diseases in many countries, including the developed ones, has resulted in increasing concern and intensive investigation of foodborne pathogens. This resulted currently in, an increased demand for the microbiological testing of food products.The purpose of a microbiological testing should be to identify and restrict harmful microorganisms, which can spoilage foods, and ensure safety from foodborne diseases. This underscored the need for establishment of a thorough testing procedure to identify all the possible threats, which may lead to one of the two results: pathogen not detected or detected.Before performing a microbiology test, the analyst should know the necessity, purpose, and primary expectations underlying the test, the predicted certainty of identifying an issue, and possible results that may come out from the test. Accordingly, this will help understand the sampling procedure to be performed, the type of samples to be collected, the particular test method to be used, and appropriate actions to be taken before and after the test results are attained.