Modern Food Microbiology

Description

Food microbiology studies microorganisms that cause fundamental changes to food, resulting in either fermentation or spoilage. Food microbiology papers published during the past decade have been characterized by multidisciplinary interests that have confirmed the increasing amount of evidence that has implicated microorganisms in different areas, including food technology, food safety and hygiene, food poisoning, food genomics, and, more generally, food omics, functional foods, and probiotics, besides emerging methodologies that have been applied to food analyses. Probiotics research and innovation in functional food production deserves particular attention. Food microbiology is the study of food micro-organisms; how we can identify and culture them, how they live, how some infect and cause disease and how we can make use of their activities. Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle. They are the oldest form of life on earth. Microbe fossils date back more than 3.5 billion years to a time when the Earth was covered with oceans that regularly reached the boiling point, hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the earth. The book studies, analyses and upholds the pillars of food microbiology and its utmost significance in modern times. It discusses fundamental processes involved in food microbiology and the food products industry.