Food
microbiology is the study of micro-organism that inhabits, create or
contaminate food. However, bacteria is important in food science as they are
essential for the production of foods such as yoghurt, beer etc and fermented
foods as bread. It is also the study of food micro-organisms, how we can
identify and culture them, how they live, how some infect and cause disease and
how we can make use of their activities. They are also single cell organisms so
tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle.
They are the
oldest form of life on earth. Microbe fossils date back more than 3.5billion
years to a tone when the earth with oceans that regularly reached the boiling
point.
In food microbiology you will learn
about the detection and quantification of pathogenic organisms how they survive
in food processing environment how to characterize those that are emerging. You
will also discover microbiology of health and wellness foods learn about
quality control issues and much more. It is a field that can include not only
microbiology but also sanitation.
Food microbiology can be broken down
into three areas, first is food production. Many foods and beverages, such as
yoghurt, beer and wine are produced with the help of microbiology as most
people know that it can as well cause food spoilage, the third area of food
microbiology concerns the detection and prevention of food borne diseases, some
of the organisms involved in food outbreaks are E. coli, staphylococcus
aureaus, salmonelia etc.
More also, some food additives and
food supplements such as citric acid, and amino acid respectively are produced
industrially using microbes. They also produce steroids, hormones, enzymes for
detergents and emulsifiers.
SOME ASPECT OF
FOOD MICROBIOLOGY
1.
Microbiology
of food fermentation.
2.
Predictive
microbiology
3.
Microbiological
aspects of food safety.
4.
Microbiological
aspects of food spoilage and quality.