Frank Schuren, senior scientist microbiology, in TNO’s Microbiology and Systems Biology department, highlights solutions.
To compensate for the reduced safety and shelf life of products produced using natural ingredients or fewer preservatives, the composition of the products and the hygiene in production plants and process lines may need to be improved.
Meeting these requirements is not an easy task to accomplish for manufacturers of beverages.
Production lines are traditionally screened for potential microbial hazards by culturing site-derived samples and subsequently analysing microbial outgrowth. However, this approach is often time-consuming, lacks specificity and sensitivity and provides only limited information.
For example, not all microorganisms can be cultured, and it’s often difficult to extract the entire microbial population from samples. In addition, it does not provide information on pathogenicity (harmfulness), the ability to form biofilms, transmission route or source of contamination. As a consequence, manufacturers have poor knowledge of microbial hazards, which may lead them to take the wrong measures to optimise their production chain or to make unnecessary modifications to their products.
TNO has developed two types of hazard assessments for beverage manufacturers seeking to improve their product’s shelf life or change production methods. Flora-linked Microbial Alert Systems for Hazards (Flash) is used to gain broad insight into the microbial hazards of the production chain.
Flash involves the isolation of microbial DNA followed by mass sequencing, allowing for an accurate determination of the entire microbial population in the sample.
In the event of a problem with a specific microorganism being found, Specific-Microbial Alert System for Hazards (Smash) is used to analyse the properties of a specific microorganism. Smash consists of in-depth DNA-based analysis, providing an overview of the properties of the microorganisms including pathogenicity, ability to form biofilms, transmission route, source of contamination and sensitivity to antibiotics.
Both Flash and Smash are quantitative, fast and can be used to test a large number of samples of any kind. Flash and Smash allow beverage and food manufacturers to improve the shelf life of a product without taking unnecessary interventions or making unnecessary modifications to the product. In addition, Flash and Smash may lead to fewer product recalls and fewer production losses.
As demand for natural grows, so too does the search for natural alternatives to E numbers. However, the identification of natural alternatives for E numbers currently involves a trial and error process.
TNO has developed a novel tool to accelerate the discovery of natural substitutes of E-numbers, which has already been used to find natural alternatives for commonly used preservatives such as sorbate and benzoate.
Specific spoilage microorganisms sensitive to these preservatives were analysed for changes in their gene activity in the presence of the preservative, and highly specific markers for these preservatives were identified.
The identification of accurate and discriminating preservative and E number markers enables rapid screening of libraries of natural ingredients for ingredients displaying similar activity. Such natural ingredients illustrating E number mimetics can then be used in formulations to replace the E numbers in the end product.
In principle, TNO’s tool can be generically applied to identify natural substitutes of any ingredient functioning as an inhibitor of microorganisms. This technology also has the potential to identify novel solutions to combat the long-known Alicyclobacillus spoilage problem (ACB) which is a significant problem for the beverage industry.
These novel technologies will be instrumental in further improving the preservation of beverages and foods and will help industry to comply with changing consumer demands.
Frank Schuren is senior scientist microbiology, TNO Microbiology and Systems Biology department.
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