The Hygienic Prevention of Food Contamination: The Role of Technology

Abstract

The problem of microbial contamination in foods is strictly correlated with the regulatory norms and hygiene obligations. For this and other important reasons, the attention of researchers is correlated with the study of food-borne diseases (from the medical viewpoint) and the control of food-borne pathogens in the food production and manipulation environment. The introduction of useful microbiological criteria is surely needed. This effort must include the establishment and the practical implementation of reliable sampling plans, the definition of food lots or batches and correlated guidelines for public and private laboratories. On these bases, the management of food-borne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms is possible, on condition that a sufficient number of observations are available and carefully studied. The use of mathematical predictive models and derived software programs may be also useful in the ambit of risk assessment and HACCP studies. This chapter is dedicated to a simplified description of the basic strategies for the eradication of microbial contamination in food production environments: thermal treatments; chemical systems; and non-thermal treatments.