Rapid and quantitative detection of the microbial spoilage of muscle foods: current status and future trends

Meat is one of the most perishable foods and its moist, nutritious surface is conducive to the growth of a wide range of spoilage bacteria. The conventional microbiological approach to food sampling has changed little over the last half century. Traditional methods are slow and give retrospective information. This can be a major drawback within the food industry as monitoring procedures, such as the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system, need to give results in real time to enable corrective action to be take as soon as possible. Over the last two decades, rapid microbiological test procedures have been developed. On page 414, D. Ellis and R. Goodacre discuss the advantages and drawbacks of these methods, which can be divided into two main groups; enumeration and presence/absence tests. However even the quickest of these methods takes a relatively long time. For example a test using polymerase chain reaction for the detection of a pathogen such as Salmonella spp. takes about 18 hours. Developments for the future that could provide more immediate results are also discussed. For example one possibility is the electronic nose that comprises an array of electronic chemical sensors and can recognise simple or complex odours. Managing the data produced by the new technology is also currently a major hurdle to be overcome.