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Predictive Microbiology

Predictive microbiology is a description of the responses of microorganisms to particular environmental conditions such as temperature, pH and water activity. Predictive microbiology utilises mathematical models (built with data from laboratory testing) and computer software to graphically describe these responses

Current applications of predictive microbiology in an industrial context are wide but can be summarised into three groups of activities:

• Product innovation: Assessing speed of microbial proliferation, growth limits, or inactivation rate associated with particular food formulations and/or process conditions in order to develop new products and processes, reformulate existing products, determine storage conditions and shelf-life.

• Operational support: Supporting food safety decisions that need to be made when implementing or running a food manufacturing operation, such as designing in-factory heating regimes, setting critical control points (CCPs) in HACCP, assessing impact of process deviations on microbiological safety and quality of food products;

• Incident support: Estimating the impact on consumer safety or product quality in case of problems with products on the market.

Beside this current use, predictive microbiology might be also utilised to transfer new risk management concepts into practical guidelines

CENTA  has access to predictive microbiology data bases and offers a group of qualified resarchers experts in pathogen microbiology and  process formulation to optimise products and processes with the highest food safety.

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