Rapid methods and automation for seafood microbiology

Abstract

Rapid methods and automation in microbiology are dynamic fields of study that address the utilization of microbiological, chemical, biochemical, biophysical, immunological and serological methods for the study of improving isolation, early detection, characterization and enumeration of microorganisms and their products in clinical, food, industrial and environmental samples. Although early developments in this field were directed to clinical microbiology, in the past 5–10 years, food microbiologists have started to adapt rapid and automated methods in their laboratories. Conventional methods of detection, enumeration, identification and characterization of microbes are described in reference books such as Compendium of Methods for the Microbiological Examination of Foods (Vanderzant and Splittstoesser, 1992), Official Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC., 1990), Bacteriological Analytical Manual (FDA, 1992), Standard Methods for the Examination of Dairy Products (APHA, 1985) and Modern Food Microbiology (Jay, 1992).