Controlling the Microbiological

Quality of Foods
Dr E Musie
2015
 Introduction
• Microbial analysis
– different methods used in the microbiological examination
of food give us information about the size and
composition of a food’s microflora

• Learning outcome
– To describe how data obtained from such tests can be used
to make decisions on microbiological quality

– Examine how best to ensure the production of

consistently good microbiological quality products.
 Recap indices of food sanitary quality

• It would not be feasible to examine each food or food product

for the presence of hazardous mos
– Determine the sanitary quality of foods by their content
of certain indicator organisms
• Indicators of sanitary quality for foods consist of two
groups of bacteria
– Coliforms==Gram negative, aerobic or fac
anaerobic rod which produces gas from lactose
within 48 hours
– Enterococci
– In addition, total numbers of mos in food
(heterotrphic counts)
 QUALITY
• Quality ===‘degree of excellence’ possessed by a product,
– that is to say how good it is at serving its purpose
• In terms of the microbiology of foods, quality comprises three aspects:
– (1) Safety.
• A food must not contain levels of a pathogen or its toxin likely to
cause illness when the food is consumed.
– (2) Acceptability/shelf-life.
• A food must not contain levels of microorganisms sufficient to
render it spoiled in an unacceptably short time.
– (3) Consistency.
• A food must be of consistent quality both with respect to safety
and to shelf-life.
• The consumer will not accept products which display large batch-
to-batch variations in shelf-life
• Regulatory bodies and the food industry are the two groups
most actively interested in determining and controlling the
microbiological quality of foods.
• The regulatory authorities must do so to fulfil their statutory
responsibility
– to protect the public from hazardous or inferior goods.
• Commercial companies, both food producers and retailers,
– protect and enhance their good name and their market.
 Microbiological standards

• Since the safety and keeping quality of fresh foods are

related to microbial content,
– microbiological standards have been proposed for a
variety of foods and some of these have been adopted

• Microbial standards should result in foods that have a longer

shelf life and foods that are free of microbial hazards
– has the connotation of law attached to it

• The adoption of microbiological standards for foods

• protection of consumers from unnecessary food-
borne/poisoning hazards as well as from deteriorating
products
 Microbiological criteria
• To distinguish food of acceptable quality from food of unacceptable
quality requires the application of what are known as
microbiological criteria
• Three different types of microbiological criterion have been defined
by The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications
for Foods (ICMSF)
– A microbiological standard is a criterion specified in a law or
regulation.
• It is a legal requirement that foods must meet and is enforceable by the
appropriate regulatory agency.
– A microbiological specification is a criterion applied in commerce.
• It is a contractual condition of acceptance that is applied by a purchaser
attempting to define the microbiological quality of a product or
ingredient.
• Failure of the supplier to meet the specification will result in rejection of
the batch or a lower price.
– A microbiological guideline is used to monitor the microbiological
acceptability of a product or process.
• It differs from the standard and specification in that it is advisory rather than
mandatory.
• It also introduced two types of criterion:
– food safety criteria and
– process hygiene criteria.

• If foods fail to meet food safety criteria

– they should not be placed on the market or withdrawn
from sale.
• Failure to meet process hygiene criteria is less serious
– necessitate a review of food safety management
procedures with a view to improving product quality.

• The criteria are not intended as quality control measures

– they serve as a means of ensuring food safety
management systems such as HACCP are functioning
correctly
 The ICMSF have also specified what should be
included in a microbiological criterion
• A statement of the food to which the criterion applies
– foods differ in their origin, composition, and processing,
present different microbial habitats
• therefore pose different spoilage and public health
problems
• A statement of the micro-organisms or toxins of concern.
– microbial ecology of the food
• Details of the analytical methods to be used to detect and
quantify the micro-organisms/toxins.
– Preferred methods for standards or specifications would
be those elaborated by international bodies
 what should be included in a microbiological
criterion cont.
• The number and size of samples to be taken from a batch of
food or from a source of concern such as a point in a
processing line
– As the number of samples tested increases, so does our
confidence in the result but so too does the cost of testing

• The microbiological limits appropriate to the product and the

number of sample results which must conform with these
limits for the product to be acceptable (n, c, m, and M)
 SAMPLING SCHEMES
• To be sure of the quality of the batch or lot
– we would have to test it all, but since microbiological
testing is destructive,
– this would result in almost absolute confidence in the
product quality but none left to sell.
• The sampling scheme most commonly applied in the
microbiological testing of foods is that of sampling for
attributes
– Two-class Attributes Plans
• samples are classified as acceptable or defective
depending on the test result
– Three -class Attributes Plans
• divide samples into three classes: acceptable,
marginally acceptable, and unacceptable.
 Two-class Attributes Plans
• A sample is described as defective if
– contain more than a specified number of organisms, or
– the target organism is detected.
• A two-class sampling scheme is defined by three numbers:
– n – the number of sample units to be tested;
– m – the count above which the sample is regarded as
defective.
– c – the maximum allowable number of sample units which
may exceed m before the lot is rejected.
• For example, if m is 104 cfu g-1, those samples giving counts of
102, 9x103 would be considered acceptable and 1.2 x104
defective
 Three-class Attributes Plans
• A three-class plan is defined by four numbers:
– n – the number of samples to be taken from a lot;
– M – a count which if exceeded by any of the test samples
would lead to rejection of the lot;
– m – a count which separates good quality from marginal
quality and which most test samples should not exceed;
– c – the maximum number of test samples which may fall
into the marginally acceptable category before the lot is
rejected.
• For example, if m is 104 cfu g-1, those samples giving counts of
102, 9x103, and 1.2 x104 would be considered acceptable,
marginally acceptable, and defective respectively
 Product Organisms Plan class n m M c Source

Frozen fruits/
vegetables pH 4.5 E. coli 3 5 102 103 2 ICMSF

Product Organisms Plan class n m M c Source

Minced meat APC 3 5 5x105 5x106 2 EU

E. coli 3 5 50 500 2

Staph. aureus 3 5 100 5000 2

Salmonella
(25 g samples) 2 5 – – 0
 QUALITY CONTROL USING MICROBIOLOGICAL
CRITERIA
• The most effective way of controlling quality is through
intervention at source, during the production process, and
supply chain.
• CODES OF GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE
– GMP is defined as those procedures in a food-processing
plant which consistently yield products of acceptable
microbiological quality suitably monitored by laboratory
and in-line tests.
– A code of GMP must define details of the process that are
necessary to achieve this goal such as
• times, temperatures, etc., details of equipment, plant
layout, disinfection (sanitation) and hygiene practices
and laboratory tests.
 GMPs cont.
• have been produced by a variety of organizations including
– national regulatory bodies,
– international organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius
Commission
– trade associations and
– professional bodies.
• They can be used by
– manufacturers as the basis for producing good quality
product
– may also be used by inspectors from regulatory bodies.
• development of GMPs along with an HACCP program are
better alternatives to microbiological testing of finished
products
– except for an occasional analysis for a specific purpose
QUALITY SYSTEMS: BS 5750 AND ISO 9000 SERIES
• British Standard BS 5750 and its International Standards
Organization (ISO) equivalent, the ISO 9000 series,
– Quality Systems which are applicable to any processing or
productive activity.

• A quality system is a means of ensuring that products of a

defined quality are produced consistently and
– it represents an organized commitment to quality.

• Quality systems work by requiring documented evidence at

all stages, from product research and development, through
raw materials purchase, to supply to the customer, that
quality is rigorously controlled.
• In the food industry which is increasingly pursuing
certification under such standards,
– HACCP documentation can play an essential role in this as
evidence of a commitment to quality.

• Quality assessors study the company’s ‘quality manual’

to ensure it meets all the requirements of the standard
and then make a detailed on-site assessment of actual
practices to verify that prescribed procedures are
understood and followed

• Following certification, regular follow-up visits are made

to ensure continued conformance with the standard.
 Value of certification
• The value to a company of seeking this outside endorsement
of their quality systems is that
– it provides objective evidence to potential customers of
the company’s commitment to quality and
• can therefore pay substantial commercial dividends.
– can aid inspection by regulatory authorities and
– promote international trade by increasing confidence in
food safety.
 Risk analysis
• Regulatory authorities established by governments are charged
with the task of protecting the public from unsafe food
– they must be able to assess foodborne risks and implement
strategies for their control.

• Risk assessment
– Hazard identification
– Hazard characterization
– Exposure assessment
– risk characterization

• Risk management
– Risk evaluation
– Option assessment
– option implementation
– Monitoring and review

• Risk communication
 RISK assessment

• Risk assessment should provide an estimate, preferably

quantitative, of the probability of occurrence and the
severity of adverse health effects resulting from human
exposure to foodborne hazards, known as the risk estimate

– e.g. although C. botulinum is a more severe hazard,

epidemiological evidence shows that the risk it poses is
generally very low.
 There are four steps in Risk Assessment.
• Hazard identification is similar to the hazard analysis stage in
HACCP
– must identify the agents that are hazards to health and that
may be present in a particular food.
• Exposure assessment is a qualitative/quantitative evaluation
of the likely intake of a hazardous agent.
– It must also estimate the level of the microbial hazard in the food at
the time of consumption
• Hazard characterization is the qualitative and/or quantitative
evaluation of the adverse effects associated with the
particular hazard
• Risk characterization integrates the results from the previous
three stages to give an estimate
 Risk management
• Risk management is the process of deciding, in collaboration
with risk assessors, which risk assessments should be
undertaken and then weighing policy alternatives to accept,
minimize or reduce assessed risks.
• Risk managers have to decide what level of risk is acceptable
(zero risk is an unachievable objective), assess the costs and
benefits of different control options and if required select and
implement appropriate controls, including regulatory
measures.
• Management also includes the subsequent evaluation of the
effectiveness of the measures taken and their review, if
necessary.
 Risk communication

• The final component in risk analysis is risk communication –

the interactive exchange of information and opinions between
risk assessors, risk managers, consumers and other
interested parties.

• This is an integral part of risk analysis and has a number of

goals including the promotion of awareness, understanding,
consistency and transparency.
• Following an assessment of risk and its management options,
it may be possible to define a food safety objective or
criterion
– microbiological hazard in a food that is considered to give
an acceptable level of consumer protection

• This can then be used by the food industry as a goal to be

delivered through the application of GMP and HACCP.
– This in its turn can help deliver a varied, safe and reliable food
supply, making a significant contribution to the overall quality of our
lives.
Enjoy your week-end
God bless you
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