Food Spoilage By Fungi or Sporeforming Bacteria: Common Features and Differences

Microbial spores are omnipresent in nature and in a large portion of food products. Due to the demand for less and less intensively heat-treated food products, the role of microbial spores in food spoilage and food safety has significantly increased. In contrast to the demand, the amount of quantitative and qualitative information about the behavior of spores during food preservation processes is relatively scarce. In this talk, an overview will be given about the different types of microbial spores, i.e. bacterial spores, fungal conidiospores, and fungal ascospores. The sensitivity of the different types of spores towards food preservation stresses will be, generally, discussed. Special attention will be given to quantifying the combined effect of pasteurization and other stresses present in the stored food, such as pH and water activity. Finally, areas where we are still lacking data to allow us to predict the shelf life and safety of specific types of food products will be discussed.