Micro‐organisms in dried foods: their significance, limitation and enumeration*

Abstract

Good manufacturing practice (GMP) should form the basis of microbiological quality control in the processing of foods, especially dried products with their extremely heterogeneous microflora. Dried foods can be separated into different classes each carrying specific microbiological risks. The significance of a microbiological criterion for a particular product must be deduced by studying the intrinsic properties, mode of processing and anticipated fate of the food before reconstitution and its usual culinary preparation and use. Standards should therefore be limited to those species, genera or groups of organisms that are relevant for a given category of dried food.Reliable and reproducible methods and the correct interpretation of results are essential elements in microbiological monitoring. There is an urgent need for proper evaluation and standardization of methodology, paying particular attention to the resuscitation of sublethally impaired cells of various microorganisms occurring in dried foods. Once criteria and methods have been chosen, acceptable levels (specifications) can be determined for all pertinent groups or species. These levels should be derived from surveys of similar commercially available products whose manufacture by GMP has been previously verified.

Microbiology and Water Activity Relationship in the Processing and Storage of Sudanese Dry Meat (Sharmoot)

“…In general, considering that aerobic spore-forming bacteria are the most common contaminants in dried foods (20), it appears that both GDR and GDP dried meat samples had very low microbial loads.…”

“…Antibiotic-containing (chlortetracycline HC1 and chloramphenicol) standard plate count agar (Difco) incubated at 25°C for 5 d was used to enumerate mold and yeast (16). For aerobic spore counts, tubes containing suitable decimal dilutions of each sample were heated for 1 min in a water bath set at 80"C. After rapid cooling to 10°C in ice water, samples of 1 ml from each tube were pour plated in standard plate count agar (Difco) and incubated at 37°C for 48 h (20).…”