This book focuses on state of the art technologies to produce microbiologically safe foods for our global dinner table. Each chapter summarizes the most recent scientific advances, particularly with respect to food processing, pre- and post-harvest food safety, quality control, and regulatory information. The book begins with a general discussion of microbial hazards and their public health ramifications. It then moves on to survey the production processes of different food types, including dairy, eggs, beef, poultry, and fruits and vegetables, pinpointing potential sources of human foodborne diseases. The authors address the growing market in processed foods as well novel interventions such as innovative food packaging and technologies to reduce spoilage organisms and prolong shelf life. Each chapter also describes the ormal flora of raw product, spoilage issues, pathogens of concern, sources of contamination, factors that influence survival and growth of pathogens and spoilage organisms, indicator microorganisms, approaches to maintaining product quailty and reducing harmful microbial populations, microbial standards for end-product testing, conventional microbiological and molecular methods, and regulatory issues. Other important topics include the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), predictive microbiology, emerging foodborne pathogens, good agricultural and manufacturing processes, avian influenza, and bioterrorism.

In this book, some of the most qualified scientists review different food safety topics, ranging from emerging and reemerging foodborne pathogens, food regulations in the USA, food risk analysis and the most important foodborne pathogens based on food commodities. This book provides the reader with the necessary knowledge to understand some of the complexities of food safety. However, anybody with basic knowledge in microbiology will find in this book additional information related to a variety of food safety topics.

This authoritative two-volume reference provides valuable, necessary information on the principles underlying the production of microbiologically safe and stable foods. The work begins with an overview and then addresses four major areas: 'Principles and application of food preservation techniques' covers the specific techniques that defeat growth of harmful microorganisms, how those techniques work, how they are used, and how their effectiveness is measured. 'Microbial ecology of different types of food' provides a food-by-food accounting of food composition, naturally occurring microflora, effects of processing, how spoiling can occur, and preservation. 'Foodborne pathogens' profiles the most important and the most dangerous microorganisms that can be found in foods, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, mycotoxins, and 'mad cow disease.' The section also looks at the economic aspects and long-term consequences of foodborne disease. 'Assurance of the microbiological safety and quality of foods' scrutinizes all aspects of quality assurance, including HACCP, hygienic factory design, methods of detecting organisms, risk assessment, legislation, and the design and accreditation of food microbiology laboratories. Tables, photographs, illustrations, chapter-by-chapter references, and a thorough index complete each volume. This reference is of value to all academic, research, industrial and laboratory libraries supporting food programs; and all institutions involved in food safety, microbiology and food microbiology, quality assurance and assessment, food legislation, and generally food science and technology.

The book will provide an overview of the important issues in food safety, which shows no sign of diminishing as a topic of huge concern from industry to consumer. The book does not set out to compete with large standard food microbiology titles that are well established, but will be a companion text with less scientific background detail and more information for those actually going into jobs where a practical knowledge of food safety issues is necessary. The companion website for this book can be found at: http://www.foodmicrobe.com/info.htm Practically oriented Author has wide experience of teaching cutting edge food safety information Topic of great and growing concern Succinct, core, vital information for food industry personnel

Low water activity (aw) and dried foods such as dried dairy and meat products, grain-based and dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, peanut and nut pastes, as well as flours and meals have increasingly been associated with product recalls and foodborne outbreaks due to contamination by pathogens such as Salmonella spp. and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. In particular, recent foodborne outbreaks and product recalls related to Salmonella-contaminated spices have raised the level of public health concern for spices as agents of foodborne illnesses. Presently, most spices are grown outside the U.S., mainly in 8 countries: India, Indonesia, China, Brazil, Peru, Madagascar, Mexico and Vietnam. Many of these countries are under-developed and spices are harvested and stored with little heed to sanitation. The FDA has regulatory oversight of spices in the United States; however, the agency’s control is largely limited to enforcing regulatory compliance through sampling and testing only after imported foodstuffs have crossed the U.S. border. Unfortunately, statistical sampling plans are inefficient tools for ensuring total food safety. As a result, the development and use of decontamination treatments is key. This book provides an understanding of the microbial challenges to the safety of low aw foods, and a historic backdrop to the paradigm shift now highlighting low aw foods as vehicles for foodborne pathogens. Up-to-date facts and figures of foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls are included. Special attention is given to the uncanny ability of Salmonella to persist under dry conditions in food processing plants and foods. A section is dedicated specifically to processing plant investigations, providing practical approaches to determining sources of persistent bacterial strains in the industrial food processing environment. Readers are guided through dry cleaning, wet cleaning and alternatives to processing plant hygiene and sanitation. Separate chapters are devoted to low aw food commodities of interest including spices, dried dairy-based products, low aw meat products, dried ready-to-eat cereal products, powdered infant formula, nuts and nut pastes, flours and meals, chocolate and confectionary, dried teas and herbs, and pet foods. The book provides regulatory testing guidelines and recommendations as well as guidance through methodological and sampling challenges to testing spices and low aw foods for the presence of foodborne pathogens. Chapters also address decontamination processes for low aw foods, including heat, steam, irradiation, microwave, and alternative energy-based treatments.

Food safety regulators face a daunting task: crafting food safety performance standards and systems that continue in the tradition of using the best available science to protect the health of the American public, while working within an increasingly antiquated and fragmented regulatory framework. Current food safety standards have been set over a period of years and under diverse circumstances, based on a host of scientific, legal, and practical constraints. Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food lays the groundwork for creating new regulations that are consistent, reliable, and ensure the best protection for the health of American consumers. This book addresses the biggest concerns in food safetyâ€"including microbial disease surveillance plans, tools for establishing food safety criteria, and issues specific to meat, dairy, poultry, seafood, and produce. It provides a candid analysis of the problems with the current system, and outlines the major components of the task at hand: creating workable, streamlined food safety standards and practices.

The second edition of Microorganisms in Foods 7: Microbiological Testing in Food Safety Management updates and expands on information on the role of microbiological testing in modern food safety management systems. After helping the reader understand the often confusing statistical concepts underlying microbiological sampling, the second edition explores how risk assessment and risk management can be used to establish goals such as a “tolerable levels of risk,” Appropriate Levels of Protection, Food Safety Objectives or Performance Objectives for use in controlling foodborne illness. Guidelines for establishing effective management systems for control of specific hazards in foods are also addressed, including new examples for pathogens and indicator organisms in powdered infant formula, Listeria monocytogenes in deli-meats, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in leafy green vegetables, viruses in oysters and Campylobacter in poultry. In addition, a new chapter on application of sampling concept to microbiological methods, expanded chapters covering statistical process control, investigational sampling, environmental sampling, and alternative sampling schemes. The respective roles of industry and government are also explored, recognizing that it is through their collective actions that effective food safety systems are developed and verified. Understanding these systems and concepts can help countries determine whether imported foods were produced with an equivalent level of protection. Microorganisms in Foods 7 is intended for anyone using microbiological testing or setting microbiological criteria, whether for governmental food inspection and control, or industrial applications. It is also intended for those identifying the most effective use of microbiological testing in the food supply chain. For students in food science and technology, this book provides a wealth of information on food safety management principles used by government and industry, with many references for further study. The information was prepared by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF). The ICMSF was formed in response to the need for internationally acceptable and authoritative decisions on microbiological limits for foods in international commerce. The current membership consists of fifteen food microbiologists from twelve countries, drawn from government, universities, and food processing and related industries.