Tuesday, July 28, 2015: 10:30 AM
Oregon Ballroom 201 (Oregon Convention Center)
The validation of the effectiveness of microbial inactivation or control processes is integral to assuring a safe and quality food. However, it is unrealistic to perform validation procedures for inactivation of human pathogens within food processing plants, necessitating use of indicator or surrogate microorganisms to prevent introduction of harmful organisms. A surrogate is non-pathogenic, displays similar behavior to the target pathogen on the product, can be rapidly cultured and easily distinguished from other microbiota. It is essential that the inactivation characteristics and kinetics of the surrogate be predictive of the target pathogen for the target microbial intervention. Microorganisms that have not been validated to be more resistant to the process of interest than the target pathogen should not be used. This presentation will describe the selection consideration for identification of new surrogates or the adoption of traditionally used surrogates for new applications.