Food Micro

Food Micro & Innovation

Background information of the symposium ‘Frontiers in fermentation and preservation’

The symposium was organised by the Foundation Food Micro & innovation in a joint venture with the Netherlands Society for Microbiology and the Society of Applied Microbiology and was held in Wageningen, The Netherlands on 9-11 January 2002 at the International Conference Centre

Aims

Modern food processing is dependent on a range of preservation and fermentation technologies to ensure that food is maintained at an acceptable level of quality from the time of manufacture through to time of consumption. Although, many of these technologies such as heating, cooling, drying and fermentation have been practised for millennia, the present global food markets demand for new approaches to assure safety, extend shelf life and improve health of the consumer. Also consumer demands are changing and consumers take it for granted that food is safe, nutritious and enjoyable. In addition food should have a natural appearance and produced in a sustainable way.

Preservation

The challenge of mild food preservation is to develop techniques that have a high impact on food micro-organisms but a low impact on food quality attributes. A number of non-thermal methods such as treatment with high hydrostatic pressure and high electric field pulses are believed to be superior to heat treatment. Combining intrinsic, extrinsic and implicit factors are increasingly practised as an attractive preservation approach avoiding severe treatments causing sensorial, textural and nutritional degradation. However, the consequences of these combined treatments on the microbial spoilage and safety are diverse and yet not complete clear. Knowledge and insight related to the resistance of food pathogens to these techniques is critical in designing safe non-thermally preserved foods. At the symposium the latest information will be presented and it will be discussed how we might use the new insights to device knowledge-based rather than empirical combinations of preservation factors

Fermentation

Fermented foods have traditionally contributed greatly to both diversity and safety of the human diet. New products and new variants of well established fermented foods are being developed, taking advantage of biodiversity in potentially suitable starter cultures and exploring the possibilities of metabolic engineering e.g. in pathways yielding flavour compounds. Fermentation is also exploited to yield products such as organic acids, enzymes and bacteriocins used among others in food production and preservation. Modern biotechnology has greatly contributed to improving yields and facilitating down-stream processing. Micro-organisms are currently being used as food supplements in so-called probiotics, assuming beneficial effects for the consumer by improving his intestinal microbial balance. The commercial interest in such products has spurred a great deal of research to provide a scientific basis for health effects, and advances in this difficult, multidisciplinary area of research will be presented at this symposium.