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.