Microbiological qualities

Abstract

Principles'The purposes of microbiological quality control, whether carried out by the Government Inspection Services or industry, are mainly two-fold : prevention of food-borne disease and retardation of microbial spoilage. In addition quality control must also meet general microbiological quality requirements, having no direct relationship to health or spoilage, e.g. microscopical counts of moulds in canned tomato products or the enumeration of viable spores of the genus BaciZZus in cocoa powder.It is now generally accepted that microbiological quality control by the industry itself should be primarily of a preventative nature (Wilson, 1955). This is much more effective than the analytical approach, i.e. inspection of' the microbiological condition of the food as it leaves the factory, and subsequently taking corrective measures if necessary. Authorities and buyers have also come to understand that, for statistical reasons (Juran, 1962;Steiner, 1967), factory inspection is more effective, for their purposes too, than examination of finished samples.Preventative microbiological quality control entails, in essence, the drafting and supervision of the measures required to keep microbial counts low by reducing the numbers of micro-organisms contaminating the food and preventing the proliferation of those micro-organisms inevitably present. In this connection the following phases of contamination of, and proliferation in, foods have to be distinguished: (i) primary = microbial load of the raw materials; (ii) secondary = increase in counts during processing; (iii) tertiary = post-processing recontamination; and (iv) quaternary = contamination and/or growth during culinary preparation of the manufactured commodity.Such control should be attained by the following measures: (i) procurement of raw materials of the best possible microbiological quality;(ii) prevention of contamination of raw materials prior to processing;

Wholesomeness of some types of semi‐preserved foods

“…Group 1 consisted of the most perishable products, having a, values (Christiansen et al, 1968;Genigeorgis, Riemann & Sadler, 1969;Mossel, 1969;Bern & Leistner, 1970) well over 0.95 and pH values not entirely inhibitory to most micro-organisms (Hood & Smith, 1951 ;Baird-Parker & Freame, 1967;Blanche Kolensmid & van Rhee, 1968 ;Holtzapffel & Mossel, 1968). Vacuum-packaged sliced sausages, other than fermented types, vacuum-packaged lightly smoked fish, vacuum-packaged soft cheeses (Gouda) and also meat and fish salads come into this group.…”

“…Group I products were examined for the following by the techniques already described (Mossel, 1969;Mossel, Shennan & Vega, 1973) :…”