Food Microbiology Commons^™

Effectiveness Of Bacteriophages Against Bloater-Causing Bacteria Enterobacter Cloacae In A Model Food System, Ashley Reed, Dzhuliya Ignatova, Sandra Kopic, Unique Sardeneta

Symposium of Student Scholars

Effectiveness of bacteriophages against bloater-causing bacteria Enterobacter cloacae in a model food system

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Ashley Reed, Dzhuliya Ignatova, Sandra Kopic, Unique Sardeneta, and Jean Lu

Abstract

Cucumber fermentation is one of the most important vegetable fermentations in the United States and Europe. Enterobacter cloacae and other gas-producing bacteria can cause bloater defect (the gas pockets or hollow cavities formed in fermented cucumbers) which lowers the quality and the yield of fermented cucumbers, thereby resulting in significant economic losses to the pickling industry. Cost-effective strategies to control E. cloacae and other microbiota need to be …

You Are What You Eat — Exploring The Microbiome Through Inquiry-Based Labs. Microbiome Lesson Plans, Karla S. Fuller

Open Educational Resources

If these commonly used spices have the ability to inhibit pathogenic bacterial growth, could they also potentially inhibit the growth of normal, harmless bacteria that live in your body? In this lab, we will test common bacteria for resistance to food additives.

Assessing The Efficacy Of Bacteriological Analytical Manual (Bam) Enrichment Broths For Detection Of Salmonella Spp. In Meat Analogs, Georgia Sampson

Food Science (MS) Theses

Plant-based meat alternatives are gaining popularity as the number of market options increases. However, the recent appearance of these products on the market post-dates the validation of the current approach for isolating Salmonella from meat analogs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of the currently used Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) pre-enrichment broth (lactose broth) with two additional broths (universal pre-enrichment broth and buffered peptone water) for the detection of Salmonella in five plant-based burger products. Each burger product was spiked with a Salmonella serotype (S. Enteritidis or S. Agona) that has previously been linked …

Synthesizing Inactivation Efficacy Of Treatments Against Bacillus Cereus Through Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis And Evaluating Inactivation Efficacy Of Commercial Cleaning Products Against B. Cereus Biofilms And Spores Using Standardized Methods, Minho Kim

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bacillus cereus is ubiquitous and can be easily carried in food processing facilities. It is problematic because it can survive various treatments such as heat, radiation, and chemical cleaning by forming spores and biofilms. Some review papers have discussed inactivation efficacies of different treatments against B. cereus, but they are narrative without quantitative summaries. This study first aimed to find effective and food industry-applicable treatment candidates against B. cereus spores and biofilms by synthesizing and comparing the efficacy of treatments using systematic review and meta-analysis. After screening, 17 studies were included, but only nine studies were used for meta-analysis …

Optimizing The Application Of Plasma Functionalised Water (Pfw) For Microbial Safety In Fresh-Cut Endive Processing, Uta Schnabel, Martina Balazinski, Robert Wagner, Daniela Boehm, Paula Bourke

Articles

The microbiological profiles and responses of native microflora of endive were investigated using a model process line, to establish where a defined PFW should be optimally applied to retain or improve produce microbiological quality. The PFW processes were compared with tap water and ClO₂. The antimicrobial efficacy of PFW was quantified by determining the reduction in microbial load, the microbial viability and vitality. Depending on the stage of application of PFW, up to 5 log₁₀-cycles reduction was achieved, accompanied by a reduction of metabolic activity, but not necessarily with a decrease in metabolic vitality. Multiple application …

Pre-Milling Interventions For Improving The Microbiological Quality Of Wheat, Shpresa Musa

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Development of pre-milling intervention strategies to improve the microbial quality of wheat and wheat-based products is an emerging concern for the food industry. When steam tempering conditions for hard and soft wheat were applied, the microbial population associated with the grain was significantly reduced compared to controls. Further reductions were observed when acid was applied as part of the intervention which is an added benefit since the addition of a tempering solution is required for both wheat classes since the desired milling moisture cannot be reached by applying steam alone. On average, the highest reductions for hard wheat were achieved …

Rice From Paddy To Pantry To Plate: Mitigating Rice Blast Disease With Saponins Of Medicago, Improving Shelf Life With Crispr, And Exploring Global Cuisine Through Text Analysis, Kathryn Haydon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice is the staple food for more than half the world’s population, with nearly 500 million metric tons of rice consumed globally every year. Any risk of loss due to disease, waste, or spoilage is therefore noteworthy. This dissertation explores the passage of rice from paddy to pantry to plate, with special attention given to disease and storage life. The most important disease of rice is blast, caused by the ascomycete Magnaporthe oryzae, which can cause losses of ~30% every year. This study found that saponin-enriched root extracts of Medicago truncatula effectively kill fungal spores in vitro and reduce moderate …

Understanding The Roles Of Nutrient-Niche Dynamics In Clostridioides Difficile Colonization In Human Microbiome Colonized Minibioreactors, Xiaoyun Huang

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive pathogen that is one of the most common causes of health care-associated infections in the U.S. Because of its importance to human health, researchers are trying to understand risk factors for infection and identify new therapies to treat disease. A “healthy” gut microbiome has the ability to protect the host against colonization of C. difficile or other pathogens by providing colonization resistance. One proposed mechanism for colonization resistance is through competition for nutrients with pathogens by the members of the healthy microbiome. We tested whether competition for nutrients was important for colonization resistance in human …

Investigating The Prevalence And Control Of Listeria Monocytogenes In Food Facilities, Cyril Nsom Ayuk Etaka

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Small and very small food facilities in the ready-to-eat food industry face difficulties complying with the Food Safety Modernization Act-Preventive Controls for Human Food rule (FSMA-PCHF). This regulation highlights the need for sanitation to control environmental pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes. The main goal of this project was to investigate the prevalence and control of Listeria monocytogenes in food facilities. This study provides technical assistance to facilities to comply with the PCHF rule and addresses sanitation alternatives for food contact surfaces like aqueous ozone.

First, the prevalence of Listeria spp and L. monocytogenes in small and very small food manufacturing …

The Persistence Of Human Norovirus Surrogate In Leafy Greens Production System, Wenjun Deng

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since mostly consumed raw, foodborne pathogen contamination of leafy greens has led to a large number of foodborne disease outbreaks and illnesses each year in the United States. Human noroviruses (hNoV) are the most common viral pathogen transmitted by leafy greens. In this dissertation, the persistence of the hNoV surrogate Tulane virus (TV) on pre-harvest lettuce and microgreens was investigated. Lettuces are the most studied leafy green model, while previous hNoV research has mainly focused on the post-harvest stage of production. Here, pre-harvest hydroponically grown lettuce were used to determine TV persistence on leafy greens. After inoculation on leaves at …

Recoding Of Stop Codons Expands The Metabolic Potential Of Two Novel Asgardarchaeota Lineages, Jiarui Sun, Paul N. Evans, Emma J. Gagen, Ben J. Woodcroft, Brain P. Hedlund, Tanja Woyke, Philip Hugenholtz, Christian Rinke

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Asgardarchaeota have been proposed as the closest living relatives to eukaryotes, and a total of 72 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) representing six primary lineages in this archaeal phylum have thus far been described. These organisms are predicted to be fermentative heterotrophs contributing to carbon cycling in sediment ecosystems. Here, we double the genomic catalogue of Asgardarchaeota by obtaining 71 MAGs from a range of habitats around the globe, including the deep subsurface, brackish shallow lakes, and geothermal spring sediments. Phylogenomic inferences followed by taxonomic rank normalisation confirmed previously established Asgardarchaeota classes and revealed four additional lineages, two of which were consistently …

Bioanalytical Determination Of Glucose Concentration In Sports Drinks Using Uv/Vis Spectroscopy, Laney Hedgeman, Brianna Bond

Symposium of Student Scholars

Abstract

The purpose of our project is to indirectly monitor the enzymatic activity of glucose oxidase as it reacts with the glucose present in sports drinks through the quantitative analysis of the generated ferricyanide. As glucose oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of beta-D-glucose in the presence of oxygen, D-glucono-1,5-lactone is produced along with hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide is used in a subsequent reaction with ferrocyanide catalyzed by horse radish peroxidase to produce water and the chromophore ferricyanide. This compound absorbs in the ultraviolet/visible spectrum at 420 nm, which can be quickly measured using Ultraviolet/Visible Spectroscopy. Since the molar ratio of …

Cahs Researchers Receive Provisional Patent For Potential Plant Sweetener, Aruna Weerasooriya, Godson Osuji, Laura Carson, Peter Ampim, Subhani Bandara, Eric Obeng, Sela Woldesenbet

Datasets Collection

The plant is a perennial herb native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is commonly known as the Aztec sweet herb, bushy lippia, honey herb, or hierba dulce, used as a natural sweetener and medicinal herb in its native Mexico and parts of Central America. The Aztecs used it and introduced it to the Spanish when they arrived. A compound called Hernandulcin, whose sweetness is about 1,000 times higher than in sucrose, provides the plant’s sweet taste.The plant has low Hernandulcin production in its tissues. Despite its sweetness, it isn’t used in the natural sweetener …

Trunctrimmer: A First Step Towards Automating Standard Bioinformatic Analysis, Z. Gunner Lawless, Dana Dittoe, Dale R. Thompson, Steven C. Ricke

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bioinformatic analysis is a time-consuming process for labs performing research on various microbiomes. Researchers use tools like Qiime2 to help standardize the bioinformatic analysis methods, but even large, extensible platforms like Qiime2 have drawbacks due to the attention required by researchers. In this project, we propose to automate additional standard lab bioinformatic procedures by eliminating the existing manual process of determining the trim and truncate locations for paired end 2 sequences. We introduce a new Qiime2 plugin called TruncTrimmer to automate the process that usually requires the researcher to make a decision on where to trim and truncate manually after …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Sanitizer Efficacy To Remove Listeria Monocytogenes, Salmonella Spp., And Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli Biofilms From Food Processing Surfaces, Ashlynn Robinson

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sanitizing in food production environments is essential to prevent, reduce, and/or eliminate foodborne pathogens. Biofilms consist of one or more different types of microorganisms and can grow on numerous types of surfaces (Costerton,1999). SLRs provide transparency about what steps were taken to acquire the sources included in the analysis (Liberati et al.,2009; Moher et al., 2009). The references obtained from the databases were based on specific eligibility criteria to ensure reproducible results. The inclusion criteria included six surface types (stainless steel, glass, plastic, polyurethane, PVC, rubber), seven sanitizer types (anionic acid, benzalkonium chloride, iodine, iodophor, peracetic acid, quaternary ammonium, and …

Food Sensitivity In Individuals With Altered And Unaltered Digestive Tracts, Walker Carson

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) against food proteins has become the subject of much discussion with regards to its role in adverse food reactions. An estimated 20% of the population suffers from some type of food intolerance. Food sensitivity can present with a vast range of symptoms and severities. Diet can have a substantial impact on the wellbeing of individuals with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Incidentally, these diseases have been associated with elevated levels of food-specific IgG as well an increased likelihood of food sensitivity. The presence of food-specific IgG and food sensitivity in …

Gut Community Response To Wheat Bran And Pinto Bean, Shuen Leow

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is general consensus among the scientific community that dietary fibers reduce the risk of Western diseases through their fermentation by beneficial microbial communities in the human gut. However, dietary fibers in wheat bran (WB) and pinto bean (PB) are incompletely fermented by the gut microbiota. Therefore, there is a critical need to identify gut microbial communities that can increase fermentation of dietary fibers from these foods to maximize their disease-preventing properties. The goal of this study was to identify such communities with increased capacity to ferment the dietary fibers in WB and PB. To accomplish these goals, a stepwise …

Impact Of Different Plant-Based Foods Consumption On The Composition And Diversity Of Gut Microbiota, Ayoub Al Othaim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plant-based diets are primarily derived from plant sources, including fruits and vegetables. Such patterns are associated with health benefits by promoting general health and preventing many diseases and metabolic disorders. Fruits and vegetables are key sources of high-quality nutrients such as dietary fibers and polyphenols. Since they are rich in dietary fibers and polyphenols, whole fruits and vegetables represent unique and somewhat understudied modulators of the gut microbiota and its associated functions. This study aims to (i) investigate the impact of varying dilutions of cherry juices concentrate on the composition of the murine gut microbiota, (ii) investigate the impact of …

Purple Variety Of Sweet Potato, Ming Gao

Datasets Collection

Purple sweet potatoes are versatile enough to be used in cupcakes as well as ice cream. However, when cooked in their natural state, they are dry and starchy, prompting most to use the purple sweet potatoes as flour for baked goods, or in some cases, for ice cream. Dr. Gao wants his variety of purple sweet potato to be more palatable. Gao earned the coveted USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture 1890 Institution Capacity Building Grant to support his research. The project will focus on developing a variety that is enjoyable in its natural state and is moist and tastefully …

Challenges And Opportunities In Food Safety-A Review, Iram Asim, Humaira Yasmeen

Journal of Bioresource Management

Food-borne diseases are the group of disorders that are caused by consuming food having microbial existence in it. So safe food handling is to make sure the lessening of detrimental effects in growth to the packaging of food to minimize health issues on consumers which otherwise can lead to large scale disease outburst. This review concludes the findings of the studies on how food is being handled from farm to fork, how airlines are contributing towards the spreading of diseases, how any negligence in any one of the steps can cause havoc to mankind in the light of the recent …