Grahame W. Gould

Nicholas J. Russell

For centuries man has treated food to prolong its edible life, and nowadays both traditional and modern preservatives are used widely to ensure the satisfactory maintenance of quality and safety of foods. There continues to be increased public concern about the use of food additives, including preservatives, resulting from a perception that some of them may have deleterious effects on health. However, as eating habits have changed with an emphasis on what has been popularly termed a `healthy diet', there is at the same time a concern that reduction in preservative usage could lead to loss of safety and protection from food poisoning. While some preservatives are coming under increasing regulatory pressure others, particularly more natural ones, are receiving increased attention and gaining in importance and acceptability. This book supports the continued safe and effective use of preservatives within these current constraints. It therefore gives detailed information on the practical use of the major antimicrobial preservatives. Uniquely, it couples this with current understanding of their modes of action, at the levels of cellular physiology and biochemistry, in such a way as to provide a sound scientific basis for their efficacy. Such an approach also encourages the future logical development and use of preservatives.

Food Preservatives

Lothar Leistner

Since centuries foods have been preserved by heating, chilling, drying, salting, conserving, acidification, oxygen-removal, fermenting, adding various preservatives, etc., and often these methods were applied in combinations. More recently the underlying principles of these traditional methods have been defined (i.e., F, t, aw, pH, Eh, competitive flora, various preservatives), and effective limits of these factors for microbial growth, survival, and death were established. Food preservation and also food quality depends in most cases on the empirical and now more often on the deliberate and intelligent application of combined preservative factors, i.e. on so-called hurdle technology. It also became obvious that futuristic food preservation methods (e.g., high hydrostatic pressure, high-intensity pulsed electric fields, high-intensity pulsed light, oscillating magnetic fields as well as food irradiation) are most effective in combination with additional hurdles. Thus, hurdle technology is also the key of food preservation in the future. Furthermore, basic aspects of hurdle technology (i.e., homeostasis, metabolic exhaustion, and stress reactions of microorganisms as well as the multitarget preservation of foods) have been recognized to be of fundamental importance and are increasingly studied in relation to hurdle technology. Different aspects of improvements of traditional foods and in the development of novel foods via hurdle technology have been covered recently in numerous articles and book chapters. However, Hurdle Technologies: Combination Treatments for Food Stability, Safety and Quality is the first work on hurdle technology in which all aspects, the possibilities and limitations of hurdle technology, are comprehensively outlined and evaluated. World-renowned on the subject, Leistner and Gould were instrumental in the development of the hurdle technology concept and in the last decades have obtained much practical experience in the application of this successful approach in the food industry worldwide.

Combination Treatments for Food Stability, Safety, and Quality

Hurdle Technologies: Combination Treatments for Food Stability, Safety and Quality

Barbara Lund

Anthony C. Baird-Parker

Tony C. Baird-Parker

Grahame Warwick Gould

This authoritative two-volume reference provides valuable, necessary information on the principles underlying the production of microbiologically safe and stable foods. The work begins with an overview and then addresses four major areas: 'Principles and application of food preservation techniques' covers the specific techniques that defeat growth of harmful microorganisms, how those techniques work, how they are used, and how their effectiveness is measured. 'Microbial ecology of different types of food' provides a food-by-food accounting of food composition, naturally occurring microflora, effects of processing, how spoiling can occur, and preservation. 'Foodborne pathogens' profiles the most important and the most dangerous microorganisms that can be found in foods, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, mycotoxins, and 'mad cow disease.' The section also looks at the economic aspects and long-term consequences of foodborne disease. 'Assurance of the microbiological safety and quality of foods' scrutinizes all aspects of quality assurance, including HACCP, hygienic factory design, methods of detecting organisms, risk assessment, legislation, and the design and accreditation of food microbiology laboratories. Tables, photographs, illustrations, chapter-by-chapter references, and a thorough index complete each volume. This reference is of value to all academic, research, industrial and laboratory libraries supporting food programs; and all institutions involved in food safety, microbiology and food microbiology, quality assurance and assessment, food legislation, and generally food science and technology.

Grahame W. Gould

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