Food Microbiology Transportation and Storage Details

Question: Discuss about theFood Microbiologyfor Transportation and Storage Details. Answer: Introduction Mayonnaise being a combination of egg yolk, oil (s), lemon juice or vinegar along with herbs, spices and other combinations are prone to contamination. Otles Yalcin (2012) stated that egg-based products especially raw egg products like mayonnaise, egg butter, egg flip, tiramisu etc. are prone to contamination especially Salmonella. Further, Laca, Paredes Diaz (2012) indicated that edible oil products require special storage condition due to their sensitivity towards temperature, acid, contamination and other chemical reactions. Being a combination of oil and egg, mayonnaise require special storage and transportation conditions before testing process in laboratories, these transportation and storage details are described below: - Storage The main aim of storage is to prevent spoilage and cross-contamination where the conditions are maintained in a manner to avoid contamination and spoilage for a maximum duration of time. However, Laca, Paredes Diaz (2012) indicated that it is very critical to store food products and avoid contamination for a longer duration of time. Therefore, special storage conditions are critically essential for food products. The basic purposes of storage in laboratories are to avoid spoilage, provide quality and safety, cleanliness and long availability. Some of the personal hygiene guidelines are followed before initiating the storage and service of food products that are common for all food samples in laboratories. Therefore, for storing mayonnaise it is require using sterile gloves, avoiding unnecessary contact, washing hands properly before handling samples, and avoiding the risk of contamination due to unhygienic, sickness, diarrhoea and feverish condition of the person handling food product (Jay, 2012). For storage of mayonnaise before testing it is preferable to store mayonnaise in the container that will be used for transportation and testing. Therefore, the mayonnaise is stored in clean and sterile containers made up of glass that is having a bottom outlet or bottom dip to avoid air contact and contamination. The containers are filled completely with mayonnaise avoiding leftover headspace. Further, spoilage of food is a natural phenomenon where microorganisms use the food as nutrition source and lead to spoilage of food. The mayonnaise being the combination of egg and oil is more prone to spoilage because emulsion of oil is involved in production. Therefore, there is a critical requirement to provide refrigeration and freezing storage to mayonnaise having the temperature below 5ËÅ ¡C. The mayonnaise can be stored for 3-4 months at this temperature to avoid spoilage. The data labels are used to mark batches for ensuring that fresh batches are used for testing process and all the batches were stored segregated from each other. The premises of storage should be kept clean and ensure contamination free zone through sterilisation (Ortega-Rivas, 2012). The air saturation is another aspect or property of mayonnaise that is required to be maintained in the storage condition. Mayonnaise containing oil shows 60-65% air saturation level where the oil holds the capacity to absorb oxygen present in the air and get contaminated. Therefore, the storage samples of mayonnaise are required to be contamination free and for this purpose nitrogen sparging in considered best method in analytical laboratories. Otles Yalcin (2012) studied that nitrogen of 0.5 Nm3/t mayonnaises is sparged under pressure to absorb the extra air present in stored mayonnaise to avoid contamination due to Salmonella. The nitrogen of 99% purity should be used for this process and sparging is applied before complete storage of mayonnaise. After sparging it is required to maintain the storage temperature, pH and acidic conditions to avoid contamination. For proper acidification of raw-egg products like mayonnaise the fresh batches are prepared daily that are maintained with pH below 4.2, the temperature below 5ËÅ ¡C and discarded at day end storing them for no longer than 24 hours. However, under laboratory conditions, the mayonnaise can also be stored for the longer duration of time but it is suggested to prepare fresh batches daily to avoid contamination in the testing process. Lastly, the stored mayonnaise was maintained to avoid any contact with metals because mayonnaise has the capacity to show reaction and spoilage due to metal contact (Jay, 2012). Transportation Transportation is considered to be mobile storage where the risk of contamination and degradation is required to be avoided in laboratories. The basic criteria for transportation of mayonnaise involve moisture resistance, minimum air contact, avoiding light, maintaining temperature and pressure, avoiding agitation and contact with pro-oxidants. As mentioned above, transportation is mobile storage therefore, there are certain storage conditions like temperature, pH, heating and storing container that are required to be maintained while transporting mayonnaise. At the time of transportation, the mayonnaises are required to be kept in dark, dried and sterile containers. The containers should be UV sterile to avoid contamination and segregation of mayonnaise (Jay, 2012). The temperature should be maintained below 5ËÅ ¡C because mayonnaise is a raw egg product that requires temperature control once coming in contact with air at the time of storage, processing, receipt and display. Laca, Paredes Diaz (2012) indicated that refrigeration avoids contamination of oil-based products. Therefore, for the purpose of transportation, it is required to use mobile refrigerators for mayonnaise samples. For short distance transportation, it is recommended to use unheated and insulated containers to avoid indulgence of foreign particles. Otles Yalcin (2012) indicated that thermometers should be used to measure temperature while transporting the substances to provide accuracy. The containers should be completely filled with mayonnaise while transporting to avoid reaction with air. There should be minimum headspace and bottom filling with dip pipe or bottom outlet to avoid air contact. All possible steps are required to avoid metal contact while transporting mayonnaise, therefore, use of glass containers are recommended for the purpose of storing the sample in transportation. Further, the pH between 4.2-4.5 is required during transportation of mayonnaise to avoid contamination. Laca, Paredes Diaz (2012) studied that less acidified mayonnaise-having pH of 5.8 show more reaction with Salmonella enterica rather than mayonnaise of acidified condition showing stability for a short duration. Therefore, it is preferable to maintain the pH limits lower than 4.2 to transport and store mayonnaise (Ortega-Rivas, 2012). These were the details of transportation and storage conditions and processes that are maintained specifically for mayonnaise before initiating the testing processes in food microbiology. References Jay, J. M. (2012).Modern food microbiology. Springer Science Business Media. Laca, A., Paredes, B., Diaz, M. (2012). Lipidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ enriched egg yolk fraction as ingredient in cosmetic emulsions.Journal of Texture Studies,43(1), 12-28. Ortega-Rivas, E. (2012).Non-thermal food engineering operations. Springer Science Business Media. Otles, S., Yalcin, B. (2012). Review on the application of nanobiosensors in food analysis.Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria,11(1), 7-18.