Due to their extreme resilience, longevity, and resistance to heat and chemicals, the endospores of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria from the genera Bacillus, Brevibacillus, Clostridium, Desulfotomaculum, Geobacillus, Alicyclobacillus, Paenibacillus, and Sporolactobacillus, pose unique control challenges for the food industry.  These sporeformers have been associated with illness or spoilage of a wide variety of ready-to-eat food and beverage products (distributed at ambient, chilled, or hot-vend temperatures), and their control strategies require a good understanding of contamination sources, sporulation, germination and outgrowth mechanisms, as well as conventional and novel methods of destruction.  This symposium will provide an update on the unique characteristics of spores, examine recent spore-related food safety events, and discuss re-emerging issues associated with psychrotolerant sporeformers.  Developments in non-traditional inactivation treatments for the control of endospores will be addressed, as well as recent work on attachment, multicellular behavior, and biofilm formation of endospore-forming bacteria.

Presentations