Food spoilage

What causes it How to minimize it

You know it when you see it Or smell it Or taste it

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What are the steps of food spoilage?

Introduce microbes to food Food environment is favorable for growth Food is stored at a temperature that favros growth Enough time elapses Thermoduric microbes survive heat treatment Heat-stable enzymes can degrade food Bacteria, molds, and yeasts cause most food spoilage

Microbes and food

Most nonsterile foods contain many types of microbes Spoiled foods have one or a few- that outgrew the others (much more slowly than in laboratory conditions!)
Aerobic foods: Pseudomonas Anaerobic foods: Lactobacillus or Leuconostoc

Animal muscle tissue contains few bacteria

Hide, hair, hooves, GI tract
Hide removal Breaching GI tract Processing environment and tools Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas
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Poultry
Skin, feathers, and feet Feces and litter from coops Potable water for chilling
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Finfish and shellfish

Water temperature and feeding patterns
Warm vs cold
Psychrotrophic vs mesophilic microbes

Bottom feeders, filter feeders (molluscs)

Harvesting methods
Trawling vs line caught

Storage
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What kinds of microbes cause meat spoilage?

Common bacterial species Pseudomonas Acinetobacter Moraxella Micrococcus Staphylococcus Shewanella in poultry Fungi Among others Mechanisms Adherence (pili) Formation of glycocalyx Motility Adaptation to temperature, pH

Recall types of microbes

Oxygen requirements Temperature optima

So different types of microbes can grow as conditions change

Growth under storage conditions

Microbes were intrinsic or introduced by processing Generally few species grow
Aerobic conditions: Pseudomonas favored Vacuum packed: lactobacilli if low pH Bacillus and Shewanella can grow at higher pH Lowering aw reduces microbial growth

Meat, poultry, and fish are good food sources for microbes
High aw Protein > lipids > carbohydrates Microbial metabolism will lower pH Slow cooling may favor the growth of anaerobes in deep tissue Fungi may grow if surface gets dry Fish vary in lipid content Molluscs have higher carbohydrate content and are spoiled by fermenters

Spoilage factors are diverse like the food environment

Carbohydrates metabolized first, then lipids, then proteins (as microbial count increases) Products from:
Carbohydrates- carbon dioxide or fermentation products Lipids- aldehydes, ketones, short-chain fatty acids Proteins- amino acids, amines, short peptides Nonprotein nitrogenous compounds (usu. breakdown products from lysed cells)

How does microbial metabolism adversely affect food?

Volatile end products produce odor Oxidation of pigmented products can change color Breakdown of tissues by degradative enzymes can change texture Production of dextran or sheer numbers can produce slime Water can be released (purge)

Specific spoilage organisms: meats

High protein, low carbohydrate High aw, pH tends to be acidic Aerobes: Pseudomonas (grows fast), expends glucose Acintobacter and Moraxella prefer to utilize amino acids Facultative anaerobes and anaerobes if oxygen is limited (vacuum-packed meats) Comminuted (ground) meats spoil faster due to increased surface area

Different issues with processed meats

Heat-resistant organisms Introduced by handling

Preservatives often added Lactobacillus Leuconostoc

Amino acid metabolism Putrefaction, odor, sliminess

Eggshells do not protect against microbial infection! Eggs do have natural protection lysozyme, alkaline pH, chelators, protease inhibitors

Gram-negative motile rods green, black, red rots

Dried eggs not susceptible to spoilage

Milk and milk products

Whats in milk?
Protein
Casein, lactalbumin, amino acids

Carbohydrate
lactose

Lipids
Degraded by milk lipases into butyric, capric, caproic acids

Minerals

Pasteurization does not kill everything

Micrococcus, Enterococcus, and others can survive Pseudomonas, spore formers, and others can be introduced afterward UHT (ultra high temperature, 150oC for a few seconds) is essentially sterilized Concentrated milk products are heat treated Butter tends to be contaminated by yeasts and molds

Fruits and vegetables Vary in carbohydrates, proteins, pH What sorts of organisms would spoil them? Innate or introduced?

Fermented foods are not immune to spoilage

Generally yeasts and acidophilic bacteria

Canned foods
Heat treated to kill microbes Low acid: kill most spore formers flat sour- no gas thermophilic anaerobe-gas sulfide stinker- gas and discoloration High acid: all vegetative bacteria

Refrigerated foods
Psychrophilic and psychrotrophic microbes Handling introduces microbes Some pathogens can grow at low temperatures With long storage, microbes can increase to disease causing levels
Competitive advantages: adaptation to cold. Low O2, production of bacteriocins

Clostridium grow in vacuum-packed foods

Summary
Why are different foods spoiled differently? Available nutrients Capability for rapid growth of microbes End products: organics, inorganics, gases? Enzyme activity?