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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #274469
Title: Modeling and applications in microbial food safety

Author
item Sheen, Shiowshuh - Allen

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/20/2011
Publication Date: 11/17/2011
Citation: Sheen, S. 2011. Modeling and applications in microbial food safety. Meeting Abstract. Food Safety Management Symposium. November 17-19, 2011, Taipei, Taiwan. 1:1.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Mathematical modeling is a scientific and systematic approach to study and describe the recurrent events or phenomena with successful application track for decades. When models are properly developed and validated, their applications may save costs and time. For the microbial food safety concerns, models may be developed based on the fact that most bacterial behaviors are reproducible, and can be quantified by characterizing the environmental factors affecting growth, survival, and inactivation. For food safety management, control and monitor, models may serve an effective and useful tool for risk assessment. The Pathogen Modeling Program (PMP), a collection of predictive microbiology models, and ComBase, a database collection of published information are most widely used in food safety. The PMP (http://www.ars.usda.gov/naa/errc/mfsru/pmp) can be accessed through the Predictive Microbiology Information Portal (PMIP, http://www.ars.usda.gov/naa/errc/mfsru/portal) or used as stand-alone software. The PMIP development is coordinated by the scientists at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) of USDA-Agriculture Research Service (ARS), in collaboration with USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and other non-USDA partners in industry and academia. PMIP also includes and may reach out to other websites containing regulations and information of relevance to the safety, quality, nutrition, ready-to-eat (RTE) meat, poultry products and etc. The PMP currently contains 60+ models (about 65% foods and 35% broth models) including both static and dynamic temperature models (10+ models will be added soon). These models may allow users to apply food formulation, as well as processing parameters/conditions, to predict and/or to understand the survival trend of various bacterial food-borne pathogens. The PMP has become one of the popular modeling tools that is also used by government agencies and food processing companies in the food safety applications and is downloaded more than 8,000 times each year in over 35 countries. Some user-friendly features allow the client to easily input food-relevant criteria and then to predict how pathogenic bacteria may react to specific food environments. The expanding PMP has included the surface transfer models (of Listeria monocytogenes) during slicing operation of salmon and RTE meats, recently. The PMP will have models for seafood and shelf life applications in the near future.