The role of microbiological testing in systems for assuring the safety of beef

The use of microbiological testing in systems for assuring the safety of beef was considered at a meeting arranged by the International Livestock Educational Foundation as part of the International Livestock Congress, TX, USA, during February, 2000. The 11 invited participants from industry and government research organizations concurred in concluding that microbiological testing is necessary for the implementation and maintenance of effective Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems, which are the only means of assuring the microbiological safety of beef; that microbiological testing for HACCP purposes must involve the enumeration of indicator organisms rather than the detection of pathogens; that the efficacy of process control should be assessed against performance criteria and food safety objectives that refer to the numbers of indicator organisms in product; that sampling procedures should allow indicator organisms to be enumerated at very low numbers; and that food safety objectives and microbiological criteria are better related to variables, rather than attributes sampling plans.     

食品安全微生物学指示菌国内外标准应用的比较分析

菌落总数、大肠菌群、大肠埃希菌、肠杆菌科作为食品安全微生物限量的指示菌在国内外标准中的应用不尽相同.本文通过比较我国与欧盟、澳大利亚、新西兰、加拿大和香港地区的相关食品指示菌标准,为制定我国的食品安全微生物标准提供技术依据.     

Role of microbiological guidelines in the production and commercial use of milled cereal grains: a practical approach for the 21st century

A contemporary survey of the microbiological profile of five milled cereal grains-wheat, corn, oats, whole wheat, and durum-was conducted largely from 2003 to 2005, with routine laboratory data obtained by North American dry-milling operations. When compared to data reported in the previous century, the contemporary data showed similar or reduced quantitative counts for indicator tests (e.g., total aerobes, yeasts, molds, coliforms, and Escherichia coli) as well as a substantially lower incidence of salmonellae. The implementation of modern management systems for the control of food quality and safety, i.e., good agricultural practices, good manufacturing practices, and the hazard analysis critical control point system, together with the excellent microbiological profiles, has eliminated the need for microbiological specifications and lot acceptance criteria for milled cereal grains. Instead, microbiological monitoring guidelines, such as the periodic testing of aerobic plate counts and mold counts, can be used to verify compliance with the requirements of food quality and food safety management systems.     

The Use of Indicators and Surrogate Microorganisms for the Evaluation of Pathogens in Fresh and Fresh‐Cut Produce

Indicators and surrogate microorganisms may be used for evaluating safety of fresh or fresh‐cut fruit and vegetable products by assessing or validating the effectiveness of microbial control measures. Although frequently used on an informal basis within a specific company, use of indicators is highly dependent upon microbiological criteria that are in place for the specific produce item or category. All the considerations that must be addressed in establishing microbiological criteria must also be in place if indicators are to be utilized in process verification. Sampling design, stringency, and statistical significance are critical to the evaluation of indicators or surrogates in the assurance of food safety. General ideal qualities of indicators and surrogates are valuable starting points when developing a safety program. The importance of selecting the significant target pathogen for the specific product, its source, handling practices, and distribution practices cannot be overemphasized. The same is true for selection of the indicator or surrogate to represent those pathogens. The extensive lists of considerations and procedures should be helpful when using indicators and surrogates with fresh and fresh‐cut produce. The use and limitations of indicators and surrogates to determine or validate treatment effectiveness have been delineated. Challenges are identified for selection of an indicator or surrogate for the specific situation and conditions of an individual produce item, including growing, harvesting, processing, handling, storage, and packaging.     

Elaboration of microbiological guidelines as an element of codes of hygienic practices for small and/or less developed businesses to verify compliance with hazard analysis critical control point

Effective assurance of microbiological food safety practices in small and/or less developed businesses is not yet resolved. Although a start has been made by drafting hygiene codes, feasible methods for verifying manufacturing processes that rely on strict and meaningful criteria to be applied to process points are still lacking. This investigation is a model study with various types of ready-to-eat foods aimed at verifying adequate processing for safety and subsequent meticulous hygienic handling and safe storage of foods in small and/or less developed businesses by the use of quantitative methods for selected indicator organisms, as standardized by the International Organization for Standardization. The manufacture of the foods that were used in this study invariably included (i) a heat processing step that ensured a level of lethality of nonsporing organisms at least equivalent to the reduction of such organisms attained in the pasteurization of milk and (ii) effective means of prevention of postprocess recontamination and recolorization. The results of this study indicate that simple microbiological criteria used for this purpose, including aerobic mesophilic colony (standard plate) counts, Enterobacteriaceae counts, and, in some instances, enumeration of yeast propagules, allow adequate verification of good practices throughout. This verification through monitoring of samples taken during processing in small and/or less developed businesses was found to be an attractive alternative to the conventional examination of end products.     

我国传统酿造食品卫生微生物标准刍议

对我国传统酿造食品的特点和酿造工艺进行分析,阐明酿造过程中发酵微生物、发酵产物和污染微生物之间的相互关系,分析了我国酿造食品的卫生标准现状,提出了应进一步修订我国传统酿造食品微生物标准的建议。     

Suitability of log-linear models to evaluate the microbiological quality of baby clams (Chamelea gallina L.) harvested in the Adriatic Sea

The presence of fecal coliforms or Escherichia coli in baby clams (Chamelea gallina L.) is considered an indicator related to their safety because they can be correlated with the presence of pathogenic bacteria. For this reason the Italian regulation has defined limits for these microorganisms. The presence of these microbial indicators is dependent on various environmental variables. In this work all the variables considered are categorical and, consequently, the traditional approach of predictive microbiology was not applicable. The data were summarized by means of a cross-tabulation and analyzed using the log-linear model technique. This statistical technique is widely used in social and economic studies but only partially developed in food microbiology. The suitability of the log-linear model to analyse microbiological data in relation to environmental variables was evaluated. In particular, the microbiological quality of baby clams harvested in five different areas of the Adriatic Sea coast in Emilia Romagna (Italy) was considered. The influence of the season and geographical origin on microbiological standards was assessed. A logit model was developed to predict the frequencies, depending on geographical origin and season, of samples with concentrations of the indicator organisms below or above the legal standards provided by Italian regulation.     

国内外食品卫生微生物学标准设置比较

比较了国内外食品微生物标准的设置,分析了食品微生物标准的构成、适用范围、食品分类体系及信息、微生物指标的设定状况、检验项目及限量标准、采样方案,找出了我国食品微生物标准存在的缺陷和不足,为今后微生物检验的标准设计提供了借鉴。     

国内外食品卫生微生物标准体系探究

主要对国内外食品卫生微生物标准体系中的食品种类、检验项目、限量标准、应用要求、取样计划等内容进行比较分析,指出我国食品卫生微生物标准体系与食品法典委员会(CAC)、国际食品微生物规格委员会(ICMSF)及发达国家相比存在的差距和不足,提出了完善我国食品卫生微生物标准体系的建议。     

即食食品微生物限量标准比较分析

本文通过比较我国香港地区与国际食品法典委员会、欧盟、澳大利亚、新西兰、英国即食食品微生物限量标准,为制定我国的食品安全微生物标准提供技术依据.     

寿司和刺身的微生物限量对比分析

寿司和刺身是深受消费者喜欢的食品,但存在较大的微生物风险,对这类食品的监管,国内还未有统一的限量标准.本文对比了国内和国外主要地区的寿司,刺身类食品微生物限量标准和监管现状,希望能为制定相应微生物的限量要求提供一些参考.根据我们的研究,建议适当放宽菌落总数、大肠菌群的限量要求,最好采用大肠杆菌代替大肠菌群作为卫生指示菌...     

我国食品卫生微生物标准体系中存在的问题及建议

主要对我国的食品卫生微生物标准体系存在问题进行分析,借鉴食品法典委员会(CAC)、国际食品微生物规格委员会(ICMSF)及发达国家的食品卫生微生物标准体系,结合我国的国情,提出修改我国食品卫生微生物标准体系的构想和建议。     

Microbiology of Fresh Produce: Route of Contamination,Detection Methods,and Remedy

Fresh fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthful diet. They provide vitamins, minerals and fiber to help keep our body healthy. Occasionally, fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated with harmful bacteria or viruses, which are also known as pathogens. The major family of pathogen associated with food are members of Enterobacteriaceae which commonly form a part of microbiological criteria and their presence is traditionally related to hygiene and safety of foods. Organic fertilizers, irrigation water quality and soil are major source of contamination. For removal of pathogens, various decontamination procedures are also followed to reduce microbial load on the fruits. These are chemical preservatives and irradiation. Microbiological study of fresh produce can be done by various phenotypic, biochemical and molecular techniques so that pathogen can properly be identified. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed global risk communication message and training materials to assist countries in strengthening their food educating programs. There is a need for improved surveillance systems on food-borne pathogens, on food products and on outbreaks so that comparable data are available from a wider range of countries.     

Organic food processing: a framework for concept,starting definitions and evaluation

In 2007 EU Regulation (EC) 834/2007 introduced principles and criteria for organic food processing. These regulations have been analysed and discussed in several scientific publications and research project reports. Recently, organic food quality was described by principles, aspects and criteria. These principles from organic agriculture were verified and adapted for organic food processing. Different levels for evaluation were suggested. In another document, underlying paradigms and consumer perception of organic food were reviewed against functional food, resulting in identifying integral product identity as the underlying paradigm and a holistic quality view connected to naturalness as consumers' perception of organic food quality. In a European study, the quality concept was applied to the organic food chain, resulting in a problem, namely that clear principles and related criteria were missing to evaluate processing methods. Therefore the goal of this paper is to describe and discuss the topic of organic food processing to make it operational. A conceptual background for organic food processing is given by verifying the underlying paradigms and principles of organic farming and organic food as well as on organic processing. The proposed definition connects organic processing to related systems such as minimal, sustainable and careful, gentle processing, and describes clear principles and related criteria. Based on food examples, such as milk with different heat treatments, the concept and definitions were verified. Organic processing can be defined by clear paradigms and principles and evaluated according criteria from a multidimensional approach. Further work has to be done on developing indicators and parameters for assessment of organic food quality. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

食品卫生微生物学指标设定上的国内外差异

制定微生物指标不仅是为了检验食品终产品的卫生质量，而且在国际上广泛用于食品生产、运输和销售等全过程的监测和HACCP的验证。在我国食品卫生标准体系中，有关微生物检验的采样、检测方法以及指标表述方面与国际通行做法上有较大差距。通过介绍国际食品法典委员会制定微生物学指标的原则和要点，提出完善我国食品卫生标准体系的建议。     

Microbiological predictive modeling and risk analysis based on the one-step kinetic integrated Wiener process

The actual growth-monitoring data of microbial hazards in food are characterized by uncertainty, accumulation, discreteness, and nonlinearity, and thus it is difficult to accurately predict and analyze food safety microbiological risks in real time. Hence, we propose an approach of microbiological predictive modeling and risk analysis based on the one-step kinetic integrated Wiener process (OS-WP). First, the microbial tertiary prediction model was directly constructed through one-step kinetic analysis. Then, the WP was integrated with a tertiary model for predictive modeling of the actual microbial stochastic growth. Second, an indicator, “remaining safety life” (RSL), was introduced to analyze the potential microbiological risk on the basis of the established prediction models. Finally, the maximum likelihood estimation was used obtaining the model parameters online, and for calculating the RSL value in real time. The OS-WP approach was applied to a case study of the mixed mildew hazard during wheat storage. For different datasets, the root mean square error (RMSE) of the microbiological predictive model was less than 1.5; the relative RMSE of the RSL prediction reached 6.77%; the running time was less than 0.6 s. The result showed that the proposed approach is effective and feasible in modeling the actual growth of microbial hazards in food and can achieve online risk analysis. It can provide valuable microbiological early warning information to risk-management and decision-making departments for ensuring food safety.     

欧盟及成员国食品微生物监控体系分析与启示

目的为建立和完善我国的食品微生物监控体系提供参考。方法分析了欧盟及成员国食品微生物相关法律法规、标准、实施指南等,初步探究了欧盟及成员国采取的微生物风险分级控制措施和决策树分析法。结果概括了欧盟及成员国微生物监控体系的特点。结论借鉴欧盟科学完善的微生物监控体系,提出了构建我国食品微生物控制总体框架的技术依据。     

浅议食品微生物检验及其质量控制

食品安全问题是关系着国计民生的重要问题,提升食品的安全性,保证食品质量是维护人类健康的前提和关键。食品微生物检验方法是食品监测中必不可少的重要组成部分,在食品整体的安全管理及政府部门的日常监管中起着重要作用,是食品安全的一道控制防线。本文总结了食品微生物检验的主要内容、检测方法以及食品微生物实验室检测的质量控制措施,以期为日常食品中微生物的检测监管提供参考。     

Microbiological performance of a food safety management system in a food service operation

The microbiological performance of a food safety management system in a food service operation was measured using a microbiological assessment scheme as a vertical sampling plan throughout the production process, from raw materials to final product. The assessment scheme can give insight into the microbiological contamination and the variability of a production process and pinpoint bottlenecks in the food safety management system. Three production processes were evaluated: a high-risk sandwich production process (involving raw meat preparation), a medium-risk hot meal production process (starting from undercooked raw materials), and a low-risk hot meal production process (reheating in a bag). Microbial quality parameters, hygiene indicators, and relevant pathogens (Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, Bacillus cereus, and Escherichia coli O157) were in accordance with legal criteria and/or microbiological guidelines, suggesting that the food safety management system was effective. High levels of total aerobic bacteria (>3.9 log CFU/50 cm(2)) were noted occasionally on gloves of food handlers and on food contact surfaces, especially in high contamination areas (e.g., during handling of raw material, preparation room). Core control activities such as hand hygiene of personnel and cleaning and disinfection (especially in highly contaminated areas) were considered points of attention. The present sampling plan was used to produce an overall microbiological profile (snapshot) to validate the food safety management system in place.     

食品微生物风险分级研究进展

通过开展食品中微生物危害的风险分级研究,筛选高危食品和微生物危害进行重点监管是国际上控制食品微生物危害的通行策略,但是目前尚无国际通用的食品微生物风险分级模型。本研究对国际上已经开展的食品微生物风险分级研究进行回顾,指出了存在的问题,并提出了基于风险监测的定量风险分级模型的构想。