Chemical and physical properties of food affecting microbial growth
A.Chemical and physical properties of food affecting microbial growth :
The interaction between microorganisms and other living things in the earth is natural, constant and which plays a significant role in maintaining the ecological balance and stability of biogeochemical cycling.
As microorganisms
are associated with living things in nature they play a significant role for
survival of plants and animals.
Majority of food
materials are obtained from plants and animals and it is rich in different type
of microorganisms.
Some
microorganisms serve as food for human and animal, e.g. mushrooms, some present in
food are helpful and some others are harmful to our health.
Microorganisms use
food as the substrate for their growth and colonization.
Depending on the
type of microorganisms the growth of many organisms in food can result in
improving overall quality of food and in some cases they can deteriorate the
quality also.
Growth of harmful
microorganisms especially bacteria and fungi in food constitutes food spoilage
and sometimes cause several diseases on consumption of such food.
The major reason
for food spoilage is due to increase in number of microorganisms, utilization
of nutrients, causing enzymatic changes resulting in bad flavors due to
breakdown of some food materials or synthesis of new compounds.
Food becomes unfit
for human consumption because of such microbial activities.
Microorganisms can
oxidize reduced carbon; nitrogen and sulfur compounds present in dead plants
and animals and can contribute the minerals to the biogeochemical cycling.
Food acts as good
medium for transmission of many diseases and infections.
If the food is
contaminated by pathogenic microorganisms or their spores, they can grow and
increase their population and can produce various types of toxins which may
leads to several diseases.
Sometime microorganisms
may not grow in food but food can act as transmission route of many diseases. Therefore, food act as good
medium for spread of diseases.Several food borne
diseases are the result of microorganism present in food or their growth in
them.
Growth of
microorganisms in food is dependent on various parameters.
The factors
influencing the growth of microorganisms are physical, chemical and biological
in nature. The factors can be
generally classified as intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
The intrinsic and
extrinsic factors affecting the growth of microorganisms in food are explained
below:
The parameters
present in substrates in which the microorganisms are growing, that are
internal parts of the substrate are called as intrinsic parameters.
The most important
types of internal factors in food are:
1. Hydrogen Ion Concentration (pH):
All the
microorganisms have a minimal, maximal and optimal pH for their growth,
survival and activity of their enzymes.
Growth of microorganisms
is affected by the pH of growth environments in food (growth medium) resulting large number of
enzymes responsible for metabolism and growth.
Influence of pH of
food not only has effect on growth of microorganisms but also on processing
conditions.
Food having acidic
contents promotes growth of acid loving microorganisms such as yeasts, moulds
and some acidophilic bacteria.
Mould can grow
over a wider range of acidic pH than bacteria and yeast.
Most of the
fermentative yeasts can grow at pH of about 4.0 to 4.5, as in fruit juices and acid
food such as sauerkraut and pickles.
A food with an
acid pH would tend to be more microbiologically stable than neutral or alkaline
food. Because of this
restrictive pH the food such as fruits, soft drinks, fermented milks,
sauerkraut and pickles are stable against bacterial spoilage.
Most of the
bacteria, except acid fermenters are favored alkaline or neutral pH.
Most of the
bacteria preferred a pH range between 7.0-7.5 but some proteolytic
bacteria can grow on food substrate with high pH.
The buffer content
in the food is important to maintain the stability against microbial spoilage.
Buffers permit an
acid (or alkali) fermentation to go on longer
with a greater yield of products and organisms.
Vegetable juices
have low buffering capacity permitting a decrease in pH with the production of
only small amount of acid by the lactic acid bacteria during the early stage of
sauerkraut and pickle fermentation. This helps to
inhibit the growth of pectin hydrolyzing and proteolytic competing bacteria in
food.
Food acidification
by fermentation in home food preparations is the oldest practice man has been
doing. It is due to
production of organic acids in food by growth and fermentation of
microorganisms such as lactic and acetic acid bacteria.
The inhibitory
properties of many of the organic acids such as citric acid, lactic acid,
benzoic acid, propionic acid, sorbic acids, etc. can be used as effective
acidulants or chemical preservatives against food spoilage
bacteria.
2. Water Activity or
Moisture Content (aw):
Water is an
excellent solvent for all life processes in every living organism for
biocatalytic activity.
The amount of
water required varies for different organisms.
Water requirement
of microorganisms is expressed as available water or water activity aw.
Water activity is
the vapor pressure of the solution (of solutes in
water in most food) divided by the
vapor pressure of the solvent (usually water).
In other words it
is defined by the ratio of the water vapor pressure of food substrate to the
vapor pressure p of pure water at the same temperature – aw = p/po , where P is the vapor
pressure of the solution and Po is the vapor pressure of the solvent (usually water). The aw content is very well
related to relative humidity (RH) in the following way: RH = 100 x aw.
Pure water has an
aw of 1.00, a 22% NaCl solution (w/v) has an aw of 0.86, and a saturated solution
of NaCl has an aw of 0.75. The water activity (aw) of most fresh foods is above 0.99. In general, bacteria require
more water activity than moulds and yeasts. Gram-negative bacteria have higher
water requirements than gram-positive bacteria.
Most of the food
spoilage bacteria do not grow below aw 0.91, while spoilage moulds can
grow even at aw 0.80.
The aerobic food
poisoning bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is found to grow at aw as low as 0.86 while anaerobic Clostridium
botulinum does not grow below aK 0.94.
Moulds differ
considerably in optimal aw for vegetative growth
and spore germination.
The lowest aw value for foodborne
bacteria is 0.75 for halophiles (“salt-loving”), whereas xerophilic (“dry-loving”) moulds and osmophilic (preferring high osmotic
pressures) yeasts have been
reported to grow at aw values of 0.65 and 0.61.
The lowest water
activity values permitting growth of spoilage microorganisms .
The effect of
lowering aw below optimum is to
increase the length of the lag phase of growth and to decrease the growth rate
and size of final population of microorganisms.
This is due to
adverse influences of lowered water on all metabolic activities in
microorganisms since all chemical reactions in cells require an aqueous
environment.
The aw is influenced by other
environmental parameters such as pH, Eh (redox potential) and growth temperature
required for microorganisms.
The other factors
which influence the water activity are the kinds of solute employed to reduce
water activity, the nutritive significance of culture medium, temperature,
supply of oxygen, hydrogen ion concentration and presence of inhibitors.
3. Redox Potential (Eh):
The reducing and
oxidizing power of the food will influence the type of organism and chemical
changes produced in the food.
The concentration
of oxygen in food, chemical composition and type of microorganisms associated
contribute to the oxidation-reduction (O-R) potential of food and affect
growth of microorganisms in them.
The O-R potential of a food may be
defined as the ease with which the substrate loses or gains electrons.
The Redox potential
of food is determined by characters such as:
(a) Oxygen tension of atmosphere
above the food,
(b) Access of atmosphere to the
food,
(c) Resistance of food to the
changes occurring and
(d) O-R state of materials present
in food.
On the basis of
the ability of microorganism to utilize oxygen, organisms are classified as
aerobic, anaerobic and facultative anaerobes.
Aerobes require
free oxygen and anaerobes don’t prefer oxygen as
it is toxic to them, hence, it is grow in the absence of molecular oxygen.
Facultative may
grow both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
Generally fungi- mould and yeasts are aerobic.
But bacteria are
variables of these aspects. Some are aerobic,
some are anaerobics and others are facultative anaerobes.
If oxidation
potential is high then aerobes will grow better than anaerobes, but if
conditions become more reduced then anaerobes will be the predominant organisms.
The O-R potential is written as Eh
and measured and expressed as millivolts (mV).
If the substrate
is highly oxidized would have a positive Eh and substrate is reduced is a
negative Eh.
Aerobic
microorganisms such as bacilli, cocci, micrococci, pseudomonas, acinetobacters
require and grow at positive O-R potential and
anaerobe such as Clostridia and bacteriodes require negative O-R potential for their growth.
Most of the fresh
plant and animal food have low redox potential because of reducing substances
present in them.
Fresh vegetables
and fruits contain reducing substances such as ascorbic acid, reducing sugars
and animal tissues have sulfhydryl (-SH) and other reducing group
compounds considered as antioxidants.
Fresh vegetables,
fruits and meat promote growth of aerobic microorganisms in the surface regions
because of positive redox potential.
However, the
anaerobic microorganisms grow in inner parts of vegetables, fruits and meat
because of negative redox potential. Most of processed
plant and animal food gain positive redox potential therefore promote growth of aerobic organisms.
4. Composition of
Nutrients:
Nutrients are one
of the most important compounds for the growth and functioning of microorganism.
Nutritional
quality of food depends on the chemical composition, nutritive value or
nutrients, their proportion and growth promoting ability to the microorganisms.
The most important
factors which have to be considered are the energy substances in food, nitrogen
substances, growth promoting substances, accessory food substances or vitamins,
minerals, and water content which all are very essential for growth or energy production
of organisms.
The most energy
sources of organisms are carbohydrates.
Complex
carbohydrates such as cellulose, hemicelluloses, starch, pectin, etc. can be utilized by various
types of microorganisms.
At the same time
other carbon compounds such as esters, alcohols, peptides, amino acids, organic
acid and their salt are also serving as energy sources for many organisms.
Bacteria are
identified and classified based on their ability or inability to utilize
various sugars and alcohols.
Most organisms can
hydrolyses complex carbohydrates and can use glucose as energy source.
Some organisms
have the ability to hydrolyze pectin by producing the enzyme pectinase.
Some microorganism
can hydrolyze triglycerides and other types of fats by microbial lipase and
produces glycerol and smaller fatty acid.
In this step
triglycerides are hydrolyzed in to diglycerides then monoglycerides and
glycerols under alkaline condition by microbial lipase.
The glycerol and
fatty acids are excellent sources of carbon and energy sources of many aerobic
organisms.
Hydrolytic
products of proteins and peptides serves as sources of nitrogen for many
proteolytic bacteria such as Pseudomonas sps. The primary nitrogen sources
utilized by heterotrophic microorganisms are amino acids.
A large number of
other nitrogenous compounds may serve this function for various types of
organisms.
Some microbes are
able to utilize nucleotides and free amino acids, whereas others are able to
utilize peptides and proteins.
In general, simple
compounds such as amino acids will be utilized by almost all organisms before
any attack is made on the more complex compounds such as high-molecular-weight proteins. Protein rich food promotes
more growth of bacteria than moulds and yeasts.
Some
microorganisms require vitamins and other growth factors for their growth and
that has to be supplied with the growth medium. Such microorganisms are called
fastidious organisms.
Food contains
different vitamins, minerals and other growth factors and their composition and
content may vary.
Fresh plant and
animal food contain vitamin B complex and fruits are low, but fruits are high
in ascorbic acid.
Processing of food
often reduces the vitamin content.
Thiamine,
pantothenic acid, folic acid and ascorbic acid are heat-labile and drying cause’s loss in vitamins such as
thiamine and ascorbic acid.
Storage of food
for long may also result in decrease in vitamins and other growth factors.
Some
microorganisms produce vitamins and other growth factors which support growth
of others organisms present in food.
Each kind of
microorganisms has a range of food requirements.
Water is another
very important component for food nutrients. The water requirement of
organisms will depend on the type of organisms.
Generally moulds
have the lowest requirement, followed by gram-negative bacteria, yeasts, and gram-positive bacteria.
5. Inhibitory
Substances:
Inhibitory
substances are present in the food as its own origin, or added purposely by
preventing or inhibiting the growth of organisms.
The stability of
certain foods against attack by microorganisms is due to the presence of
certain naturally occurring substances that possess and express antimicrobial
activity.
Some plant species
are known to contain essential oils that possess antimicrobial activity.
Eugenol in cloves,
allicin in garlic, cinnamic aldehyde and eugenol in cinnamon, allyl
isothiocyanate in mustard, eugenol and thymol in sage and carvacrol (isothymol) and thymol in oregano are some
of the best studied examples.
Milk contains
several antimicrobial substances, including lactoferrin, conglutinin and the
lactoperoxidase system.
Milk casein and
some fatty acids have been shown to be antimicrobial property against some
organisms.
Lactoferrin is an
iron-binding
glycoprotein that is inhibitory to a number of foodborne bacteria and its use
as a microbial blocking agent on beef carcasses.
Eggs contain
lysozyme; ovotransferrin and conalbumin have shown some
antimicrobial properties.
6. Biological
Structures:
The natural
covering of some foods provides excellent protection against the entry and
subsequent damage by spoilage organisms. The inner part of
healthy tissues of living plants and animals are sterile and contains less
microbial count.
The protective
covering of food such as the skin of eggs, the skin on poultry, rind on fruits
and vegetables, shell on nuts and artificial coating helps to protect its inner
structures from microbial contamination and spoilage.
The physical
protection of the food my help for preservation and determination of kind, rate
and course of spoilage.
Layers of fat over
meat may protect that part of the flesh, or scales may protect the outer part
of fish.
In the case of
nuts such as pecans and walnuts, the shell or covering is sufficient to prevent
the entry of all organisms.
Once cracked nut
meats are subject to spoilage by moulds.
The outer shell
and membranes of eggs prevent the entry of all microorganisms when stored under
the proper conditions of humidity and temperature.
Fruits and
vegetables with damaged covering undergo spoilage much faster than those not
damaged.
The extrinsic
parameters are substrate independent and in this case the storage environment
that affect both the food and their microorganisms.
The main extrinsic
parameters influence the foods are:
1. Relative Humidity (RH):
The relative
humidity of the storage environment is important extrinsic parameter both from
the standpoint of aw within foods and the
growth of microorganisms at the surfaces.
When foods with
low aw contents are placed in
high RH environments, the foods takes up more moisture until equilibrium has
been established.
Similarly foods
with a high aw lose moisture when
placed in an environment of low RH.
There is a
relationship between RH and temperature that should be borne in mind in
selecting proper storage environments for foods. Generally, if the temperature
high then the RH low and vice versa.
2. Atmospheric Gases:
Like O2, Carbon dioxide (CO2) is also most important
atmospheric gas that is used to control microorganisms in foods.
Modified
atmosphere packaged (MAP) foods are make use of this
types of gases. Ozone (O3) is the other atmospheric gas
that has high antimicrobial properties; it has strong oxidizing property hence
it should not use for fat rich food as it will undergo auto-oxidation.
It has been
noticed that ozone extend the shelf life of many foods and it has shown to be
effective against a variety of microorganisms.
3. Temperature:
Microorganisms can
grow over a wide range of temperatures.
The lowest
temperature at which a microorganism has been reported to grow is -34°C; the highest is somewhere
in excess of 100°C.
But some spore
producing bacteria such as Bacillus stearothermophilus, Clostridium tetani and
Clostridium perfringens can grow above 100°C.
Based on the
temperature range microorganisms are classified as three groups –
i. Psychrophiles (Psychrotrophs), those organisms are grown
between the temperature ranges of 2°C to 20-30°C.
ii. Mesophiles, the organism
preferably grow at the temperature between 20°C and 45°C and
iii. Thermophiles, the organisms
grow better in range of 55°C-65°C.
The most important
psychrotrophs include Alcaligenes, Shewanella, Brochothrix, Corynebacterium,
Flavobacterium, Lactobacillus, Micrococcus, Pectobacterium, Pseudomonas,
Psychrobacter, Enterococcus and others.
The psychrotrophs
found most commonly on foods are those that belong to the genera Pseudomonas
and Enterococcus.
These organisms
grow well at refrigerator temperature and cause spoilage at 5-7°C of meats, fish, poultry,
eggs, and other foods normally held at this temperature.
Mesophilic species
and strains are known bacteria among all genera and may be found on food held
at refrigerator temperatures.
Most important
thermophilic bacteria in food belong to the genera Bacillus, Paenibacillus,
Clostridium, Geobacillus, Alicyclobacillus and Thermoanaerobacter.
Like bacteria
fungi are also able to grow over wide ranges of temperature.
Many moulds are
able to grow at refrigerator temperatures, especially some strains of
Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Thamnidium, which may be found growing on eggs,
sides of beef and fruits.
Yeasts prefer
psychrotrophic and mesophilic temperature ranges but generally not within the
thermophilic range.
4. Other Microbial Flora:
Microorganisms
present in the food can undergo various types of negative interactions.
These kinds of
interaction cause inhibition of some microorganisms as they are undergoing
competitions and antibiosis.
Some organisms
especially moulds can produce various types of secondary metabolites such as
antibiotics that are toxic to many bacteria.
Some foodborne
organisms produce substances that are either inhibitory or lethal to others;
these include bacteriocins, hydrogen peroxide and organic acids.
Comments
Post a Comment