Résumé :
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Recent major outbreaks of food poisoning have increased public awareness worldwide of the requirements for a safe and wholesome food supply. This book is the outcome of the explosion of interest in predictive microbiology as a method of meeting this requirement. The four authors, with backgounds in food microbiology, food chemistry, mathematics and statistics, have been able to combine theory and practice to produce a comprehensive coverage of the subject. The application of predictive microbiology enables objective evaluation of the effects of processing, distribution and storage on the microbiological safety and quality of foods. If the microbial ecology of a processing operation or of a product during distribution or storage is understood, the survival or growth of an organism of concern can be predicted by means of the mathematival relationship between microbial growth rate and environmental conditions. This means that the potential exists to estimate food quality and safety by the monitoring of storage conditions such as temperature or gaseous atùmosphere, or of intrinsic properties of the food such as water activity or pH.
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