Question

Briefly discuss the prevention of contamination and the restriction of growth in the control microbial contamination of products and processing environments.

Answer 1

Microbial control is the prevention or inhibition of microbial growth. It involves chemical methods (using chemical agents) and physical methods (heat, radiation, filtration, and others). The destruction or removal of all living micro-organisms is termed as sterilization.

Ethylene oxide: Its activity is based on alkylation. It inhibits essential cellular functions. It kills all microbes as well as endospores.

Filtration method is also used to sterilize substances that cannot be exposed to heat, like media for microorganism culture. The media is passed through a filter with a very small pore size so that the microorganisms are not passed through them. However, the substance that we would like to sterilize can pass through the filter. This method is widely used in the pharma industry.

The radiation method is the procedure in which the ultraviolet rays are passed to remove the microbes. Mostly the work stations and food items are sterilized by this method.

Heat sterilization is a widely used method. It can further be classified into moist heat sterilization and dry heat sterilization.

Microbial contamination of food products that causes food spoilage, can be prevented by the addition of preservatives, proper processing methods, and attention to temperature conditions that prevent microbial growth. Brief heating of food to kill microbes is also an effective way of preventing food spoilage. “Pasteurization” is the effective process of lowering the overall microbe's number present in a food by heating only to kill non-endospore forming bacterial species like Mycobacterium and Salmonella mesophilic microbes.