P1-68 Evolution of Microbiological Analytical Methods for Dairy Industry Needs

Monday, August 4, 2014
Exhibit Hall D (Indiana Convention Center)
Daniele Sohier, ADRIA Développement, Quimper, France
Sonia Pavan, ADRIA Développement, Quimper, France
Armelle Riou, ADRIA Développement, Quimper, France
Jerome Combrisson, Danone Research, Palaiseau, France
Florence Postollec, ADRIA UMT14.01 SPORE RISK, Quimper, France
Introduction: Fermenting microorganisms play a pivotal role in the development of physicochemical and sensory properties of food products but also contribute to product safety by limiting the growth of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. Therefore, evaluation of cell viability is of great importance for the fermented food industry in general, and more specifically for the dairy sector. Traditionally, culture-based methods have been used to enumerate microbial populations in dairy products. Recent developments in molecular methods now enable faster and more sensitive analyses than classical microbiology procedures. These molecular tools allow a detailed characterization of cell physiological states and bacterial fitness and thus, offer new perspectives to integration of microbial physiology monitoring to improve industrial processes.

Purpose: Review of existing methods described to enumerate and characterize physiological state of technological microbiota in dairy products. Discussion of current deficiencies related to specific needs of the dairy industry for fast, efficient, reliable and standardized methods.

Methods: In addition to a global Internet search, a total of four international databases were screened for journal articles, books, patents, conferences and symposia proceedings in the field of food science, food industry, life science and biomedical information (FSTA®, BIOSIS® Preview, Medline®, Foodline®).

Results: Strikingly, the use of chromogenic media has been developed for the analysis of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria and validated and normalized methods are available, but nothing of the kind was set up for technological microbiota. Recent studies show that PCR-based methods, flow cytometry and omics technologies show interesting analytical potentialities to quantify fermenting microbes and probiotics in dairy products. However, they still suffer from a lack of validation and standardization for quality control analyses, as reflected by the absence of performance studies and official international standards.

Significance: While standard methods have been developed and validated for foodborne pathogens, lactic acid bacteria and probiotics seem to be the poor relations of the diagnosis industry and method standardization. This is surprising when considering the amount of quality controls performed by the dairy industry.