Spoilage Organism Testing
Few things are worse than getting home from the grocery store to find bacteria growing on your food. Testing for spoilage organisms in food products can reduce the risk of unwanted bacterial growth. This testing can be used in optimizing storage and transport protocols, routine safety testing, and product research and development.
Perishable foods and supplements can spoil by two main pathways:
- Chemical deterioration: Spontaneous chemical reactions or reactions caused by enzymes can lead to oxidative or hydrolytic rancidity development. Oxidative deterioration is characterized by off-odors, off-flavors, and off-color development over time. Enzymes can also cause texture loss.
- Microbial deterioration: If allowed to grow, microbes produce enzymes that can breakdown products to produce a large number foul odors and offensive flavors. Microbial activity can also lead to color change, gas formation, slime formation, and texture loss.
Bacterial spoilage may not be visually obvious until products have grossly deteriorated. However, bacteria can cause a wide range of aroma defects such as inoffensive sourness or fruitiness to nauseating putrefaction. Bacterial growth and also discolor foods, cause gassy spoilage, or slime formation.
Why and When Would You Test?
If a product is susceptible to spoilage, it is prudent to know the science behind product defects so a product can be properly engineered to meet performance expectations. As part of the discovery process, it is helpful to know some basic product characteristics, such as ingredients, processing parameters, and product composition such as water activity, pH, and presence of natural or added preservatives. Microbes can be controlled by heat, cold, drying, or antimicrobial ingredients, so knowing which of these are exploited and how can allow our experts to predict how a product will perform under expected storage and retail conditions.
Below are some of the tests we provide to ensure your products remain safe and fresh based on storage, transport, and retail conditions. Our team is equipped to help with ensuring spoilage organism are not an issue by the time your product hits the market and that suggested conditions remain optimal.
Common Spoilage Organism Tests |
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