Abstract
Living organisms are broadly classified as prokaryotes and eukaryotes. All bacteria are unicellular and are prokaryotes. They are grouped as either Gram-positives or Gram-negatives based on their cell wall’s capacity to retain crystal violet dye. Gram-positive bacteria retain the dye, whereas Gram-negatives do not. Normally in foods, there exists a mixed population of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and molds. Among the microorganisms, bacteria are the most commonly implicated in foodborne outbreaks. Foodborne diseases can be classified into infections, intoxications, and toxicoinfections. Some bacteria are often used as indicators of possible food contamination. Their presence in food or water indicates the potential presence of pathogens. Several intrinsic and extrinsic factors determine the growth of microorganisms in foods. Although a number of bacterial species encountered in foods are either spoilage or pathogenic organisms, there are several others that are beneficial to food.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ayres, J.C., J.O. Mundt, and W.E. Sandine. 1980. Microbiology of foods, 658–683. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Bhavsar, A.P., L.K. Erdman, J.W. Schertzer, and E.D. Brown. 2004. Teichoic acid is an essential polymer in Bacillus subtilis that is functionally distinct from teichuronic acid. Journal of Bacteriology 186: 7865–7873.
Bhunia, A.K. 2007. General mechanism of pathogenesis in foodborne pathogens, 93–103. New York: Springer.
Buchanan, R.L., R.C. Whiting, and W.C. Damert. 1997. When is simple good enough: a comparison of Gompertz, Baranyi, and the three-phase linear models for fitting bacterial growth curves. Food Microbiology 14: 313–326.
Cabeen, M.T., and T. Jacobs-Wagner. 2005. Bacterial cell shape. Nature Reviews Microbiology 3: 601–610.
CDC. 2009. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. General information on various bacteria. http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/. Accessed 3 Dec 2010.
Davis, N.D., and U.L. Diener. 1987. Mycotoxins. In Food and beverage mycology, 2nd ed, ed. L.R. Beuchat, 517–570. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Dawson, D. 2005. Foodborne protozoan parasites. International Journal of Food Microbiology 103: 207–227.
Dawson, D.J., A. Paish, L.M. Staffell, I.J. Seymour, and H. Appleton. 2005. Survival of viruses on fresh produce, using MS2 as a surrogate for norovirus. Journal of Applied Microbiology 98: 203–209.
Edwards, G.I. 2000. Biology the easy way, 3rd ed, 370. Hauppauge: Barron’s Educational Series.
Ghai, O.P., P. Gupta, and V.K. Paul. 2004. Diseases of gastrointestinal system and liver. In Essential pediatrics, 6th ed., 269. New Delhi: CBS Publishers and Distributers.
ICMSF (International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods). 2005. Microorganisms in foods: microbial ecology of food commodities, 2nd ed, 31–32. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Jay, J.M. 2000. Modern food microbiology, 6th ed, 38–52. Frederick: Aspen.
Jonson, A.-B., S. Normark, and M. Rhen. 2004. Fimbriae, pili, flagella and bacterial virulence. In Concepts in bacterial virulence, ed. W. Russel and H. Herwald, 66–89. Basel: Karger.
Kraft, A.A. 1992. Psychrotrophic bacteria in foods. Disease and spoilage. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Kurtzman, C.P., B.W. Horn, and C.W. Hesseltine. 1987. Aspergillus nominus, a new aflatoxin producing species related to Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus tamari. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 53: 147–158.
Mead, P.S., L. Slutsker, V. Dietz, L.F. McCaig, J.S. Bresee, C. Shapiro, P.M. Griffin, and R.V. Tauxe. 1999. Food-related illness and death in the United States. Emerging Infectious Diseases 5: 607–625.
Miller, J.R., L.J. Barrett, and K. Kotloff. 1994. A rapid test for infectious and inflammatory enteritis. Archives of Internal Medicine 154: 2660.
Murray, P.R. 1995. Manual of clinical microbiology, 6th ed. Washington, DC: American Society of Microbiology.
Pozio, E. 2003. Foodborne and waterborne parasites. Acta Microbiologica Polonica 52: 83–96.
Ray, B. 2001. Fundamental food microbiology, 2nd ed, 15–17. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Ray, B., and M.A. Daeschel. 1992. Food biopreservatives of microbial origin. Boca Raton: CRC Press, pp. 81, 102, 137, 155, 177.
Sadava, D., D.M. Hillis, H.C. Heller, and M. Berenbaum. 2009. Genes and heredity – the cell cycle and cell division. In: Life: the science of biology, 210–220. New York: Macmillan.
Scott, P.R., B.M. Aldridge, M. Clarke, and R. Will. 1989. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a cow in the United Kingdom. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 195: 1745–1747.
Scott, A.C., G.A.H. Wells, M.J. Stack, H. White, and M. Dawson. 1990. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy: detection and quantification of fibrils, fibril protein (PrP) and vacuolation in brain. Veterinary Microbiology 23: 295–304.
Sieuwerts, S., A.M. de Bok, J. Hugenholtz, and E.T.J. van Hylckama Vlieg. 2008. Unraveling microbial interactions in food fermentations: from classical to genomic approaches. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 74: 4997–5007.
Sinell, H.J. 1992. Interacting factors affecting mixed populations. In Microbial ecology of foods, vol. I, ed. J.H. Silliker, 215. New York: Academic.
Sobel, J. 2005. Botulism Clinical Infectious Disease 41: 1167–1173.
Tamime, A.Y. 2002. Fermented milks: a historical food with modern applications – a review. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56(Suppl. 4): S2–S15.
USDA. 2009. Agricultural research service. BSE (“Mad cow disease”) and other TSE diseases. http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=13677. Accessed on 3 Dec 2010.
USFDA. 2005. Commonly asked questions about BSE in products regulated by FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4592529. Accessed 3 Dec 2010.
Vanderzant, C., and D.F. Splittstoesser. 1992. Compendium of methods for the microbiological examination of foods, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
Winn Jr., W., S. Allen, W. Janda, E. Koneman, G. Procop, P. Schreckenberger, and G. Woods. 2005. Koneman’s color atlas and textbook of diagnostic microbiology, 6th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kollanoor-Johny, A., Baskaran, S.A., Venkitanarayanan, K. (2012). Microbiology Terms Applied to Food Safety. In: Oyarzabal, O., Backert, S. (eds) Microbial Food Safety. Food Science Text Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1177-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1177-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1176-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1177-2
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)