76 FOOD & DRINK TECHNOLOGY
Spoilage organism detection
Fuzzy green bread. Sour dairy products. Slimy bacon. In the hands of consumers, detecting the presence of spoilage organisms can be easy and quick. After the fact, it’s easy to see how spoilage organisms, such as coliforms, E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae, yeast and mould, can reduce shelf life and contribute to the poor quality of a wide variety of food products. Detecting the presence of those same
spoilage organisms in a food processing environment before they have had a chance to multiply exponentially is not so easy. The traditional method of detection can involve highly skilled and trained microbiologists, and long holding times, to ensure a company’s consumers receive the highest quality products possible. Improving technology offers the food industry a better way. Neogen’s
Soleris rapid microbial detection technology detects spoilage organisms in a fraction of the time and effort of traditional methods. “Companies that issue certificates of analysis prior to shipment can be forced to hold products as long as five days when using traditional methods. In addition, plating and counting methods can be difficult to interpret when dealing with heavily coloured products, or those containing food particulates,” said Neogen’s Janice McGregor. “Soleris rapid microbiology allows companies to continue to release products with a complete certificate of analysis, while reducing the amount of time required to hold product. Decreasing the holding times of product in inventory can increase throughput and reduces the need for additional warehouse space.”
The heart of the Soleris system is
its ready-to-use vial. The unique vial technology measures microbial growth by monitoring pH changes and other biochemical reactions. First, samples of up to 5 mL are added to the vials prefilled with microbial growth medium. The Soleris unit then monitors changes in the chemical characteristics of the medium, and reagents change colour as metabolic processes occur. Optical changes are monitored
every six minutes in the vial’s agar plug, which is separated from the sample to eliminate interference. Changes in colour, expressed as optical units, are sensed by the photo detector and recorded in the computer. The higher the number of organisms, the faster the detection time. Neogen conducted multiple
studies to evaluate the effectiveness Assuring traceability through the meat food chain
The meat adulteration scandal, with horse meat and other undeclared meats such as highly processed pork being found in new products on a daily basis, started small but quickly spread across several countries. Products labelled as beef were found to contain up to 100% horse, while traces of horse and pig were found in a huge array of convenience foods, including major brands sold in big name supermarkets. While there is nothing inherently
problematic with ingesting horse, there have been many questions on how and where these horse and pig products entered the food chain, raising concerns about the welfare of the animals, the slaughterhouse conditions and any contaminating drugs that could be harmful to human health. Food producers are under relentless
pressure to reduce costs and perhaps what we have seen in the horse meat scandal is one of the first tangible results of that pressure. The beef from cattle reared to stringent British or EU standards will be inherently more expensive than products that have entered the food chain with few or no quality checks.
www.scientistlive.com Enhanced data logging capabilities
on products such as the PLCs and GOT series HMIs enable data to be logged from a range of connected devices – including sensors, actuators, servos, inverters and temperature controllers – ensuring complete traceability of production for safe and secure operation. The modular PLC range makes the
The question for food producers
now is how they can reinforce their traceability measures and rebuild public trust. This does not just hold true for the raw ingredients as they enter the food manufacturing process. It is just as true at every stage of the production. Effective track and trace
programmes are not optional: regulatory compliance demands it. Food companies must be able to, on demand, demonstrate with appropriate
documentation that their processes were not at fault in the event a problem is detected – that includes everything from the discovery of traces of horse DNA to a bacterial breakout – and if required, manage a product recall. A key focus of Mitsubishi Electric’s
automation architecture concept is managing a seamless flow of data and when it comes to ensuring traceability throughout the food supply chain, data is critical.
implementation of effective data logging simple by integrating a full featured data logger, eliminating the cost of an external module. The built-in data logging function provides a simple means for ensuring production traceability, with the facility to store this data to SD memory card using the integral memory card slot. The data logger supports
asynchronous scan-independent sampling as fast as 1ms. Separating its operation from the cyclic scan of the PLC provides far greater flexibility and sample frequency. Configuration of the data logger is made with parameterisation rather than programming, saving set-up time.
For more information, visit
http://gb3a.mitsubishielectric.com/fa/en
of the Soleris system for the detection of a number of spoilage organisms in a variety of commodities. The Soleris system worked well with the commodities tested. Good correlations were observed between the standard methods and Soleris results, indicating the Soleris method provides accurate results in less time. Soleris also requires less hands-on time and is simpler to perform than the standard methods, in addition to the significant time savings. The spike and recovery experiments also correlated well between the traditional methods and the Soleris results.
For more information ✔ at
www.scientistlive.com/eurolab Neogen Europe Ltd is based in
Auchincruive, Ayrshire, Scotland.
www.neogeneurope.com
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