UNIT-2

Microorganisms in Food
Microorganisms are so tiny that they are generally invisible to the naked eye. They can be seen
only with the help of a microscope. Modern day consumers are eating out more often than before
and expect their food to be wholesome and safe. Therefore, the food service professionals should
have adequate knowledge about the characteristics of microorganisms and the factors affecting
their growth and development.
General Characteristics of Microorganisms- Morphological Characteristics
They are unicellular, relatively small in size and have varied shapes. They are found in many
morphological forms:
 spherical(cocci),
 rod-shaped(bacilli),
 curved rods(comma) and
 spiral(spirochetes)
The cocci can form
 clusters (Staphylococcus),
 chains (Streptococcus) or
 tetrad (Micrococcus).
Among the rods, E.coli and Salmonella are short, whereas Clostridium is large. Vibrio is an
example of curved rods.

1. Bacteria
Bacteria are the most important group because of their wide variety of species, ability to
utilise food nutrients to grow rapidly under varying environmental conditions and survive
adverse conditions by forming spores. They are usually free living but can be parasitic. Based
on their gram staining behaviour, bacteria are grouped as-
gram positive (staphylococcus, Bacillus, Clostridium, Listeria, Monocytogenes) and
gram negative ( E.coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia).
Spore forming bacteria (Bacillus, Clostridium) form heat resistant endospores in adverse
environment.
Undesirable effect of bacteria- Acetobacter leads to souring of fruits and vegetables and
Alcaligens leads to ropiness in milk and yoghurt.
The spore forming bacteria (Clostridium and Bacillus) are significant in causing food borne
illness.
2. Moulds
Moulds are generally aerobes and so they are observed more on the surface then throughout
the food. They are more tolerant to sugar or salt as compared to bacteria. They can be easily
recognised by their fuzzy, cottony appearance on the food. For example bread and pickles.
Different moulds growing on food manifest themselves in different ways, for example, fluffy,
velvety, compact, powdery and sticky. The pigment in mycelium (red, brown, yellow, black,
purple) and in the spores (green, blue green, black, pink, orange, yellow) are characteristic of
various types of moulds. The exhibit varied heat resistance. Example of moulds include
Aspergillus, mucor and Penicillium.

Mold commonly grow as a mass of thread like structures (hyphae) which enlarge and overlap
to form visible tufts (mycelium) on food. The hyphae may be growing within the food
(submerged) or growing above the food (aerial). They may be vegetative (providing food to
the molds) or fertile. Molds are non-motile, filamentous and branched organisms. They are
multicellularorganisms. Capable of living both on plants and animals, they are generally
saprophytes but some are parasitic in nature.

Undesirable effect of moulds - they produce mycotoxins which can lead to adverse effects
such as allergy, inflammation or irritation of mucous membrane. They are also responsible
for spoilage in many kinds of food. Eg: Botryis leads to spoilage in grapes, Mucor leads to
whiskers of beef.
Desirable effects of moulds are exhibited in manufacture of certain foods. For example,
sometimes of cheese are ripened by Penicillium Roquefort I and Penicillium camembert,
respectively. Oriental foods, example, soy sauce and miso are prepared by using molds such
as mucor and aspergillus.
Rhizopus
 Aspergillus

3. Yeast and yeast like Fungi

Yeasts are single celled fungi; oval, spherical or elongated in shape; larger than bacteria and
do not form mycelium. The cell wall can have scars, known as bud scars, which indicate the
sites of budding. They are non-motile.
Yeasts are fungi which are generally unicellular and oval or spherical in shape. Being non
pathogenic, they do not cause food Borne diseases. They can cause food spoilage and many a
times are seen as powdery coating on food plants. They cause spoilage in dry fruits,
concentrated fruit juices, honey, jam, squash and chutneys. Film Yeast (pichia, candida,
trichosaran) grow on the surface of acid food, for example, sauerkraut and pickles.
 Desirable yeast fermentations with saccharomyces are carried out in the manufacture
of foods such as bread, beer, wine, vinegar. Saccharomyces Cerevisiae is used to
ferment the bread dough.
 Undesirable – candida cause spoilage of butter and margarine, saccharomyces cause
spoilage of concentrated fruit juice and honey.

4. Viruses
Viruses are much smaller than the other microbes. They do not have a cellular structure;
instead, they have outer protein layer which wraps the generic material–then Nucleic acid.
 They need to access to a host to grow and multiply; accordingly, they are termed as ‘obligate
intracellular parasites’.
The viruses are host specific and cannot grow or multiply outside the host. The must have
access to a host to grow and multiply; therefore they are termed as obligate intracellular
parasites. The viruses which attack bacteria are known as bacteriophages. Norovirus and
Hepatitis A virus can cause food Borne illness.
They cannot grow on food and therefore do not cause its spoilage.

5. Parasites
Protozoans are the most motile unicellular organisms. Most of them are free living in
environment but some are parasitic and need multiple hosts to complete their life cycle. At
one stage, they form cysts which can survive adverse environmental conditions.

Helminths responsible for food Borne illness are Trichinella, Ascaris, Taena, anisakis.
Generally it is the Cyst stage at which the protozoan is ingested through the contaminated
food. Eg:Giardia leads to giardiasis and Toxoplasma leads to toxoplasmosis.

Reproduction
Bacteria usually reproduce asexually by binary fission at a fast pace. Their cells multiply at a
constant rate depending on the extrinsic environmental conditions.
1. Lag Phase: The cells adjust to the new environment and there is no increase in their
number in this initial phase.
2. Exponential (log) Phase: The cells double by binary fission at regular interval. Their
growth is by Geometric Progression (1,2,4,8,16,……). The growth rate is higher during
this phase.
3. Stationary Phase: The rate of cell division decreases due to exhaustion of available
nutrients and accumulation of end products. The death rate equals the growth rate and the
no. of bacteria remains constant during this phase.
4. Death Phase: The viable cells start dying in an exponential manner and their number
decreases. This phase is the reverse of log phase.
Factors affecting microbial growth in food
Factors can be grouped as the intrinsic and extrinsic factors
1. Intrinsic factors (hydrogen ion concentration, water activity, oxidation reduction
potential, nutrient content, inhibitory substances and biological structure) are inherent
part of the food.
2. Extrinsic factors (today’s temperature, relative humidity and presence and concentration
of gases) are related to the storage environment which affects both the food and the
microorganisms.

1a) Hydrogen ion concentration

Hydrogen ion concentration or the pH of food has great effect on the growth of microorganisms.
Every microbe has a minimum, a maximum and an optimum pH for its growth. Most can grow
over a wide range of pH. They can even grow in very acidic environment which is otherwise
unfavourable for yeast bacteria.
The yeasts generally prefer acidic pH and are unable to grow in alkaline medium. Both yeast and
molds tolerate acid better than bacteria which grow best at near neutral pH.
The pH of food not only affects the rate of growth of microorganisms but also their rate of
survival during processing and storage.
Buffer, the compound which resist changes in pH, also have an important role in food
processing. The low buffering action of vegetables permits appreciable increase in acid during
the initial stages of pickle fermentation, thereby inhibiting the growth of undesirable organisms.
On the other hand, high buffering power of milk allowed adequate growth of lactic acid bacteria
and the subsequent acid production before yoghurt is finally set.
1b) Water Activity(aw)
All microorganisms require water for their growth but they are requirements very from one
organism to another. The requirement is best expressed as available water or water activity.
Which is defined as the ratio of vapour pressure of water in the food to the vapour pressure of
pure water at a specific temperature.
The optimum water activity for the growth of many microorganisms is between 0.99 and 0.98.
most of the bacteria grow at water activity nearing 1.00, and fail to grow when water activity
Falls below 0.91.
Compared to bacteria, the moisture requirements of yeast and molds are much less. The available
water or the water activity in food can be lowered by adding sugar and salt (which tie up water),
by forming hydrophilic colloids through dehydration or crystallisation.
1c) Oxidation Reduction Potential
Different microorganisms have different oxygen requirement for there optimal growth. Based on
their ability to use free oxygen, microorganisms can be categorised as follows:
 Aerobes which requires free oxygen
 Anaerobes which develop best in the absence of free oxygen and
 Facultative which can grow either in the presence or absence of free oxygen
Bacteria may fall in any of the three categories; whereas,mould are generally aerobic and the
yeast are usually facultative anaerobic.
Negative OR potential in fresh plant and animal foods, and their ability to resist any change
reasons the growth of aerobes except on their surface. Head space of a can have low oxygen
tension because of the vacuum and in accessibility to the atmosphere. Hermetic and exhausting
containers are essential in the canning process to prevent microbial growth and undesirable
changes, Example, bulging of can.
On the other hand positive oxidation reduction potential encourages the growth of aerobes such
as bacilli and micrococcus. Where as a negative oxidation reduction potential it suitable for
anaerobes, for example, clostridium.
1d) Nutrient Content
 Energy is derived primarily from carbohydrates, particularly the simple sugars. The
ability of microorganisms to utilise different types of simple sugars varies and is an
important tool in their identification. For example, lactobacillus grows in milk, where as
many other organisms which cannot use lactose do not grow in milk. Similarly,
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae(Baker's yeast) ferments bread dough because of its ability to
utilise maltose and helps in achieving a porous text BC.
 For growth purposes, nitrogenous compounds such as proteins, peptides, amino acids
and urea are used. Many types of mould, some types of bacteria and few types of yeast
proteolytic in nature. Microorganisms get carbon for their growth from organic
compounds and also from carbon dioxide.
  Accessory substances such as vitamins needed for the activities of microorganisms also
come from the food they grow on. For example, B vitamins are obtained from meat and
ascorbic acid from fruits. B vitamin, biotin is present in egg white but unavailable for
microorganisms because of being bound to avidin.
1e) Inhibitory Substances
Inhibitory substances either present originally comma added purposively or unintentionally or
else developed through microbial growth or processing methods. Some naturally occurring
antimicrobial substances such as lysozyme in egg white, eugenol in cloves, allicin in garlic,
thymol in oregano and benzoic acid in Cranberries prevent microbial growth. Inhibitory
substances may also be produced by microorganisms. For example alcohol production by wine
yeast prevent competitive organisms from growing. Processing techniques such as heating can
also be important in the formation of inhibitory substances.
1f) Biological Structure
Some foods have natural covering such as outer shell of eggs, scales of fish, layers of Lard over
meat, covering of nut and peel of fruits and vegetables. The biological structures prevent the
entry and subsequentdecay by the spoilage organisms. The inner tissues of fresh plants and
animals are low in microbial count. Feeling, chopping, dressing or cominution not only expose
the inner parts but also distribute the invading microorganisms.
2a) Storage Temperature and Relative Humidity

The rate of microbial growth is affected to a large extent by the storage temperature. Different
microorganisms have a minimum and maximum temperature at which they can grow. Based on
the optimum temperature required for the growth, microorganisms can be divided into three
groups:
 Thermophiles (grows best at 55 to 65 degree centigrade)
 Mesophiles (need 30 to 40 degree centigrade for the optimal growth)
 Psychotropic (grow at refrigeration temperature of 20 to 30 degree centigrade)
2b) Relative Humidity
Relative humidity of the storage environment also plays an important role in the growth of
microorganisms. It also affects water activity will in the foods. Dehydrated food such as milk
powder are highly hydroscopic and can absorb considerable moisture from the surrounding
environment when relative humidity is high.
2c) Presence and Concentration of Gases
The most frequently used gas for control of microbial growth is carbon dioxide CO2 which is
effective against many micro organisms including aerobes. On the other hand, presence of
oxygen promote the growth of microorganisms. In modified gas atmosphere, the concentration of
carbon dioxide is increased, where as that of oxygen is lowered.