Impact on human health of microorganisms present in fermented dairy products: an overview.

Fermented dairy products provide nutrients in our diet, some of which are produced by the action of microorganisms during fermentation. These products can be populated by a diverse microbiota that impacts the organoleptic and physicochemical characteristics foods as well as human health. Acidification is carried out by starter lactic acid bacteria (LAB) whereas other LAB, moulds, and yeasts become dominant during ripening and contribute to the development of aroma and texture in dairy products.

Potential to use ultraviolet-treated bacteriophages to control foodborne pathogens.

The use of replication-deficient UV-treated bacteriophages, or phages, presents an alternative to viable phages for food biocontrol applications. Nontransducing UV-treated phages, if used correctly, are unlikely to produce viable progeny phages, which might otherwise mediate undesirable horizontal gene transfer events. Phage T4 and Escherichia coli were used as a model system to examine this possibility.

Influence of host and bacteriophage concentrations on the inactivation of food-borne pathogenic bacteria by two phages.

To use bacteriophages (phages) to control food-borne pathogenic bacteria, it will be necessary to determine the conditions allowing optimal activity. To start exploring these conditions, a Salmonella phage (P7) and a Campylobacter phage (Cj6) were incubated with their respective hosts at 24 degrees C for up to 2 h at varying phage and host cell concentrations, and surviving host cells were enumerated. A quadratic polynomial equation was fitted to the inactivation data and contour maps of inactivation against log(10) phage and host concentrations were plotted.

Prevalence, numbers, and subtypes of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in uncooked retail meat samples.

A national quantitative survey of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in 1,011 uncooked retail meat samples (beef, unweaned veal, chicken, lamb and mutton, and pork) was undertaken from August 2003 to June 2004 to establish baseline proportionality data. The presence, number, and type of Campylobacter present in each sample was assessed. Prevalences of C.