Biological contaminants & 4 sources of biological contamination
When microorganisms are unintentionally present in food, they are considered biological contamination. Learn how to detect and avoid it.
Perhaps the most widely noted type of hazard in the food industry is microbial contamination.
Perhaps the most widely noted type of hazard in the food industry is microbial contamination.
When people talk about food poisoning or foodborne illnesses, it is almost always caused by microorganisms. This type of contamination is significant, and there are several preventive controls designed specifically to control different microbial contaminations. As it can happen right under every food handler's nose, knowledge about the sources of contamination and mode of transmission is essential.
While physical and chemical contaminations also cause foodborne illnesses, biological contaminants, particularly microorganisms, are considered the biggest danger to food safety. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 250 foodborne diseases are caused by microorganisms. Foodborne viruses and bacteria are accounted to cause the majority of the foodborne outbreaks. Although microbial contamination can cause significant damage, its control mainly lies in prevention.
Not familiar with what is a microbial contamination is or how to control it? Continue reading and be educated on the topic.
Microbial contamination is best described as the presence of unwanted microorganisms collectively known as pathogens. This contamination can cause foodborne illness as the result of the biological process of the contaminant itself or its byproducts.
Major examples of microbial contamination include the presence of the following contaminants:
Microorganisms are present all around us, but they cannot be seen by the naked eye because of their minute size. This characteristic of harmful microorganisms makes them more dangerous and harder to control. Some of the most notable biological contamination is caused by harmful bacteria such as E. coli strains and Salmonella enterica. These contaminants cause severe diarrheal diseases in humans.
Microbiological contamination can also bring significant changes in the characteristics of food. They can change the pH of the product from the organic acids they produce or compromise the food's structure.
Different types of microbial contamination can cause different food-derived diseases and symptoms. The degree of food poisoning may also vary depending on the microbial load on the food products and the immune system of the affected customers.
The best way to avoid microbial contamination is to practice proper food hygiene practices and to keep the working environment sanitized as intervention strategies. Foodborne pathogens can spread fast through dirty hands, utensils, equipment, and food.
Food handlers who do not practice proper handwashing can cross-contaminate different parts of the kitchen and spread microbial contamination.
Here are specific operations that you could practice to avoid the risk of contamination:
The main key factor in avoiding foodborne pathogens is to keep a clean and sanitary environment when preparing your products. This includes strict food hygiene for food handlers and knowledge about which operations can promote the potential risk of contamination from pathogenic bacteria.
Test your knowledge of food microbial contamination and control methods in our food safety quiz at FoodDocs.
In the food industry, microbial control refers to the operations that identify and prevent foodborne pathogens' unwanted growth to unacceptable levels. These operations can be as simple as cleaning your facilities to more complicated operations such as changing the characteristics and environment of the food.
Microbial control is an essential part of the food safety plan for food businesses. It consists of operations that identify potential pathogenic microorganisms and control measures.
As foods are also the main source of nutrients for microorganisms, your products are likely to be contaminated and spoiled when no controls are applied. Microbial controls are commonly done through physical and chemical means such as controlling the temperature or adding substances such as acids to lower the pH of the product.
The appropriate control for microbial food safety hazards must depend on the identified and analyzed potential foodborne pathogens present in your food. As such, operations such as hazard analysis must be comprehensive enough to set up controls.
Microbiological growth in the food industry can be controlled by applying stringent sanitation and proper food processing. Microbial hazards are naturally present in foods, especially those grown in agricultural soil, such as fresh vegetables and fruits. They can be both beneficial and pathogenic. Either way, they need to be controlled to prevent any potential changes they may cause to your food products.
You can change the conditions or characteristics of your food to control microbial growth. The following factors significantly affect the microbiological quality of food items and their presence and rate of growth:
Control options for enteric pathogens may target these factors. The factor in changing and the degree of control may depend on the present pathogenic contamination. For example, some bacterial species in chicken are more resistant to heat and require a higher degree of cooking than those in pork.
In controlling these factors, consistent monitoring is also key. Every food business must have a comprehensive food safety plan composed of monitoring procedures and food safety forms. Fortunately, we offer a digital solution to help you improve efficiency in monitoring the control of microbial growth.
Our digital food safety management system can automatically generate digital monitoring forms for operations such as cooking, cleaning, and storage temperature to save your time and make controlling microbial growth easier. In addition, our solution is equipped with a smart notification system that reminds food handlers of food safety tasks. With a notification feature, your team would be sure that every task is done on time and efficiently.
The microbiological quality of foods is a major factor in food safety in the food industry. Critical control points are often established in a food safety plan to control the growth of bacterial pathogens. Monitoring procedures are used to determine if critical values are achieved or breached. Your critical control points can be automatically identified in our HACCP Plan module, and monitoring procedures can be set up in 15 minutes. Read more about the possibilities in the last section of this article.2
Control methods used in the food industry can be very simple or complicated depending on the complexity of the food processing. The main premise of some of these methods is to alter the conditions surrounding the microorganisms and make them unfavourable for survival. Control methods are used to inhibit, reduce, or kill foodborne pathogens in food.
Some operations included in a microbial control plan may include:
There are other more complicated food processing techniques used to control microbial contamination in foods. These techniques include dehydration, high-pressure processing, radiation, and filtration. These control methods are more applicable in large-scale food production companies.
The premise of proper food storage is proper temperature control. Foods must not stay too long in the temperature danger zone, which is 40°F to 140°F (5°C to 60°C). Both pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms can grow optimally and spoil food fast at this temperature range. As such, proper monitoring is key to maintaining a proper temperature.
Food handlers must effectively perform proper cleaning and sanitation to ensure the chance of survival of pathogens is low. In addition to foodborne pathogens, other types of food contamination are more likely to occur in unsanitary conditions.
With adequate food safety training, employees will have a fundamental knowledge of which conditions favour microbial growth and those that inhibit contamination from foodborne pathogens.
To achieve consistency in these control methods, your food business must have a strong food safety plan – you can use our digital food safety management system to achieve the highest level of food safety. The digital monitoring forms we automatically generate for you feature detailed instructions on performing and monitoring tasks appropriately. With this feature, you can ensure that microbial control measures are consistently followed, and your products will always have good microbiological quality. Creating microbial quality control in a food business entails establishing a comprehensive food safety plan.
In the food industry, microbial control methods are used when there is a known and analyzed biological food safety threat. After identifying the potential microbial contaminants, appropriate controls are established.
The microbial controls used will vary depending on the nature of the potential contamination. Approaches can be any of the following categories:
Microbial control methods are often preventive measures to ensure that the food you serve to consumers is safe and protects public health. Failure to apply particular microbial controls during food production can increase the persistence of pathogens and allow them to survive as food contamination and spoil the food items. Such cases lead to numerous food recalls and foodborne illnesses, including viral and bacterial diseases, worldwide.
Microbial controls require a consistent application to become effective. Everything starts with a great HACCP Plan and with the rightly identified critical control points. The food safety plan of food businesses must include comprehensive monitoring forms, and teams must be well-equipped with food safety knowledge.
Microbiological contamination of food is a very common type of contamination as it can quickly occur at any given time and place. Despite this, its control is fairly simple. We offer a digital solution for you that can help ensure that all microbial control-related operations are correctly performed and are always on time.
Our system can automatically generate monitoring forms using artificial intelligence. These forms are based on the nature of your operations and can be further customized to fit your food business. In addition, they are equipped with detailed instructions to help food handlers execute the tasks every time.
Here are some areas and benefits where our digital solution can help you:
You can further customize this food safety plan to fit your operations. In an average of 1 hour, you can get a comprehensive plan which is 500x faster than the manual process.
Our objective is to help food businesses ensure food safety compliance in the most efficient way possible. In addition to digital monitoring forms, our digital Food Safety Management System also features the following:
You can set up all of these features from FoodDocs in just 15 minutes. The process only requires you to answer a few basic questions describing your business operations to us. Using artificial intelligence and a machine learning program, our system will automatically generate digital monitoring forms for you.
You can further customize these forms to fit your unique activities. In addition, we feature a prefilling solution for our monitoring logs to help your employees save time and maintain accurate readings. Our digital FSMS was built to make compliance with food safety regulations more effortless and consistent, it covers your needs to ensure microbial control.
Do you want to test these solutions firsthand now? Use our 14-day free trial and discover how easily food safety compliance may be ensured.
Need more information about this topic? Here are a few frequently asked questions about microbial contamination definition in the food industry.
All operations, including reheating foods before serving, sanitizing contact surfaces, and refrigerating meals for safekeeping, are examples of microbial control. These operations help reduce and control the growth of pathogenic bacteria that can potentially cause foodborne illness and other food safety issues.
Microbiological contaminants are best described as unwanted microorganisms on food that can cause microbial spoilage and health risks such as foodborne illness. This type of contaminants may come from a wide range of sources, including an unsanitary environment, contaminated water, the food itself, food handlers, and other types of contamination such as physical contamination (e.g., pests and physical debris.
The microbial control that destroys both microorganisms and their endospores are called sterilization. This process uses very high temperatures for a significant amount of time. Although this procedure may be too extreme for processing foods, it can be used to sterilize equipment with high microbial quality standards.
The easiest form of microorganisms to inhibit is their vegetative form. This form refers to the state of bacterial species and fungi capable of reproducing and forming viable counts in microbial tests.
When microorganisms are unintentionally present in food, they are considered biological contamination. Learn how to detect and avoid it.
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