A prototype decision support IT-tool for the food industry was developed in the STARTEC project. Typical processes and decision steps were mapped using real life production scenarios of participating food companies manufacturing complex ready-to-eat foods. Companies looked for a more integrated approach when making food safety decisions that would align with existing HACCP systems. The tool was designed with shelf life assessments and data on safety, quality, and costs, using a pasta salad meal as a case product. The process flow chart was used as starting point, with simulation options at each process step. Key parameters like pH, water activity, costs of ingredients and salaries, and default models for calculations of Listeria monocytogenes, quality scores, and vitamin C, were placed in an interactive database. Customization of the models and settings was possible on the user-interface. The simulation module outputs were provided as detailed curves or categorized as "good"; "sufficient"; or "corrective action needed" based on threshold limit values set by the user. Possible corrective actions were suggested by the system. The tool was tested and approved by end-users based on selected ready-to-eat food products. Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.

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The STARTEC Decision Support Tool for Better Tradeoffs between Food Safety, Quality, Nutrition, and Costs in Production of Advanced Ready-to-Eat Foods

On calculating sterility in thermal preservation methods: application of the Weibull frequency distribution model.

Structural model requirements to describe microbial inactivation during a mild heat treatment

Plate readers can measure the growth curves of many microbial strains in a high-throughput fashion. The hundreds of absorbance readings collected simultaneously for hundreds of samples create technical hurdles for data analysis. Growthcurver summarizes the growth characteristics of microbial growth curve experiments conducted in a plate reader. The data are fitted to a standard form of the logistic equation, and the parameters have clear interpretations on population-level characteristics, like doubling time, carrying capacity, and growth rate. Growthcurver is an easy-to-use R package available for installation from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). The source code is available under the GNU General Public License and can be obtained from Github (Sprouffske K, Growthcurver sourcecode, 2016).

/pdf/growthcurver-an-r-package-for-obtaining-interpretable-zmpj1p16qs.pdf

Growthcurver: an R package for obtaining interpretable metrics from microbial growth curves.

that were isolated from bakery products, flours, or cereals. Less than 7.5 mg of PLA ml 1 was required to obtain 90% growth inhibition for all strains, while fungicidal activity against 19 strains was shown by PLA at levels of <10 mg ml 1 . Levels of growth inhibition of 50 to 92.4% were observed for all fungal strains after incubation for 3 days in the presence of 7.5 mg of PLA ml 1 in buffered medium at pH 4, which is a condition more similar to those in real food systems. Under these experimental conditions PLA caused an unpredictable delaying effect that was more than 2 days long for 12 strains, including some mycotoxigenic strains of Penicillium verrucosum and Penicillium citrinum and a strain of Penicillium roqueforti (the most widespread contaminant of bakery products); a growth delay of about 2 days was observed for seven other strains. The effect of pH on the inhibitory activity of PLA and the combined effects of the major organic acids produced by lactic acid bacteria isolated from sourdough bread (PLA, lactic acid, and acetic acid) were also investigated. The ability of PLA to act as a fungicide and delay the growth of a variety of fungal contaminants provides new perspectives for possibly using this natural antimicrobial compound to control fungal contaminants and extend the shelf lives of foods and/or feedstuffs. The increased interest in biopreservation of food systems has recently led to the development of new natural antimicrobial compounds having different origins. A variety of systems to prevent food spoilage have been investigated; these include animal-derived systems (lysozyme, lactiferrin, magainins, etc.), plant-derived products (phytoalexins, herbs, spices), and microbial metabolites, including bacteriocins, hydrogen peroxide, and organic acids (12). Few of the major food preservation techniques (e.g., low temperature, low water activity, acidification, etc.) act by inactivating the spoilers, while most of the newer or emerging techniques (irradiation, electroporation, high hydrostatic pressure, etc.) act by directly inactivating microorganisms. Nowadays, in the case of bread and bakery products, which can be contaminated by a variety of molds (mainly Aspergillus and Penicillium species), contamination can be prevented by irradiating a product with infrared rays or microwaves, by using a modified atmosphere, or by adding fungal inhibitors, such as ethanol, propionic acid, sorbic acid, and acetic acid (17). In particular, propionic acid and its salts are commonly used to extend the shelf lives of bakery products. Recently, the levels of chemical preservatives permitted in bakery products in Europe have been reduced due to application of EU Directive 95/2/CE (1), which allows concentrations of propionate and sorbate salts of 0.3 and 0.2% (wt/wt), respectively, for packaged sliced breads, although the latter is rarely used because of its secondary effects on bread volume (17). When 0.3% (wt/vol) calcium propionate was tested in a conidial germination assay with several molds contaminating bakery products, fungal growth still occurred, suggesting that the use of suboptimal salt concentrations might not assure

W.C Damert

Papers

When is simple good enough: a comparison of the Gompertz, Baranyi, and three-phase linear models for fitting bacterial growth curves