Food Biotechnology

Dr. Kamal E. M.
Elkahlout
Food Microbiology 2
Microbial Nutrition and
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
Factors Affecting Growth

Factors affecting the growth and survival of micro-organisms in foods

The ability of microorganisms to grow or

multiply in a food is determined by the food
environment as well as the environment where
the food is stored.
Intrinsic factors
Factors related to the food itself.
(nutrients, water activity, pH, redox potential
and oxygen)
Extrinsic factors
Environmental conditions where the food is
stored.
(Temperature, Relative humidity, Gaseous

Intrinsic factors

Nutrients and growth

When a microbial cell is growing in a food, the nutrients
supplied by the food include: carbohydrates, proteins, lipids,
minerals and vitamins.
All foods contain these 5 major nutrients but nutrients vary
greatly with the type of food.
Example: meat is rich in proteins, lipids,
in carbohydrates.

minerals and vitamins but poor

Foods from plant sources are rich in carbohydrates but

lipids, minerals and some vitamins.

poor

in proteins,

Microorganisms normally found in food vary greatly in nutrient

requirement with bacteria requiring the most followed by yeast
and molds

Intrinsic factors

Water activity (Aw)

Water activity (Aw) is a measure of the availability of
water for biological functions and relates to water
present in a food in free form .
In a food system total water is present in a food in
Free and Bound form .
Bound water is the fraction used to hydrate hydrophilic
molecules and to dissolve solutes. It is not available
for biological function hence does not contribute to Aw.

Water activity (Aw)

The Aw of a food can be expressed as: the
ratio of water vapor pressure (p) of the food to
that of pure water (Po which is 1)
i.e. P/Po .
It ranges between 0 -1 or more accurately >0
to <1, as no food can have either 0 or 1 Aw.
The Aw of a food can also be determined from
its equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) by
dividing ERH by 100.
(% ERH/ 100)
(ERH is expressed as percentage ).

Aw and microbial growth

Free water in a food is necessary for

microbial growth.
It is needed to transport nutrients,
remove waste materials, carry out
enzymatic reactions, synthesize cellular
materials and take part in other
biochemical reactions.
Each microbial species has an optimum,
maximum and minimum Aw level for
growth.

Aw of foods can be reduced by

removing water (desorption) and
increased by the adsorption of
water.

Desorption process gives

relatively lower values than
absorbtion process does at the
same moisture content of a food.

Microorganisms can be
controlled by reducing the Aw of
food.
Aw can be reduced by adding
solutes, ions, hydrophilic
colloids, freezing and drying.

Intrinsic factors

pH
pH indicates the hydrogen ion concentration in a
system. (H+ concentration ).
It ranges from 0 14 with 7.0 being neutral.

Foods can be grouped as high acid foods (pH below

4.6) and low acid food (pH 4.6 and above).

Fruits, fruit juices, fermented

foods (from fruits, vegetables,
meat and milk and salad
dressings
(HIGH ACID FOODS)

Most vegetables, meat, fish, milk

and soups
LOW ACID FOODS

 pH has profound effect on the growth of microbial cells.

Each species has an optimum and a range of pH for growth:
o Molds and yeasts-able to grow at lower pH than bacteria.
o Gram negative bacteria are more sensitive to low pH than Gram
positive bacteria

pH range:
o

molds: 1.5-9.0

o Yeasts: 2.0-8.5
o Gram positive: 4.0-8.5
o Gram negative: 4.5-9.0

o However acid tolerant strains (Pediococcus acidilactici) can

acquire resistance to lower pH compared with other strains
eg Salmonella.

pH and microbial growth

When pH is reduced below the lower limit, microbial

cells stop growing and lose viability.
Information on the influence of pH on growth and
viability of microorganisms is important in developing
methods to prevent the growth of undesirable
microorganisms in food.

Intrinsic factors

Redox potential, Oxygen and growth

Redox potential ( Eh) measures the oxidation reduction

potential of in a system whereby a substance is oxidized
and the other reduced simultaneously.
Process involves:
loss of electrons from a reduced state (oxidation)
gain of electrons by an oxidized substance (reduction)
electron donor reduces oxidized substance (reducing
agent).
electron recipient is called the oxidizing agent.
redox potential is measured as units of millivolts (mV).
Oxidized range: + mV

Reduced range: - mV

Redox potential in food

Is influenced by its chemical composition, specific

processing treatment given and storage condition in
relation to air.
Fresh foods of plants and animal origin are in their
reduced stage due to the presence of reducing
substances e.g. ascorbic acid, reducing sugars and the
SH group of proteins.
once respiration of cells has been stopped ,O2 will
diffuse inside and change the redox potential.
Processes such as heating, can increase or decrease
reducing compounds and alter the Eh.

Redox potential of some foods

Redox potential and microbial

growth
On the basis of the growth in presence and absence of
free oxygen, microorganisms have been grouped as
aerobes, anerobes facultative anaerobes or
microaerophiles. Remember

Growth of microorganisms and their ability to generate

energy by the specific metabolic reactions depend on the
redox potential of foods.

Presence or absence of oxygen and the Eh of food

determine the growth capability of a particular microbial
group in a food and the specific metabolic pathways used
during growth.

Aerobes-need free O2 for energy generation as the final electron

acceptor through aerobic respiration
Facultative anaerobes can generate energy if free O2 is available or
they can use bound O2 in cpds eg NO3 or SO3 as final electron
acceptors through anaerobic respiration
If O2 is not available then other cpds are used to accept the
electron through fermentation (anaerobic)
Anaerobic and facultative anaerobes can only transfer electrons
through fermentation
Anaerobes such as obligate or strict cannot grow in the presence of
even small amount of O2 as they lack superoxide dismutase to
scavenge the toxic oxygen free radicals.
Aerobic species-molds, yeasts, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Micrococcus
Anaerobic species-lactic acid bacteria, Clostridium species,
Enterbacteriaceae.

Technologies to control the redox potential

of food in order to control the growth of
microorganisms
Vacuum packaging.
Skin tight packaging.
Gas flushing.
Canning.
Antioxidants : These preservatives
include natural antioxidants such as
ascorbic acid (AA, E300) and
tocopherols (E306), as well as
synthetic antioxidants such aspropyl
gallate(PG, E310),tertiary
butylhydroquinone(TBHQ),butylated
hydroxyanisole(BHA, E320) and
butylated hydroxytoluene(BHT, E321).

Extrinsic factors

Extrinsic factors important in microbial growth in a

food include the environmental conditions in which
it is stored .these include :
Temperature
Relative humidity
Gaseous Environment
The relative humidity and gaseous conditions affect
of storage respectively influence the Aw and Eh of
the food.

Extrinsic factors

Temperature
Foods are exposed to different temperatures
from time of production until the time of
consumption.

Microbial growth is accomplished through

enzymatic reactions which is depended on
temperature.
Remember
thermophiles

psychrophiles, mesophiles and

Extrinsic factors

Relative Humidity
Relative humidity and water are interrelated.
Relative humidity is a measure of water activity of
the gas phase.

When food commodities have low Aw are stored in

high relative humidity, water transfers from gas
phase into the food. This causes the otherwise
dormant spores of bacteria or fungi to germinate.
Once they are actively growing, they produce
water as an end product of respiration. Hence they
increase the Aw of their own, this favors the growth
of high Aw requiring bacteria and increase in

Extrinsic factors
Gases in atmosphere
Oxygen influences the redox potential of microbial associations.

Carbon dioxide regulates cell growth of some bacteria.

If partial pressure of carbon dioxide increases over a critical

level, metabolic activity will be retarded.

Retarding effect of CO2 increases with increase in

concentrations.

CO2 is used in packaging of some food items in order to control

the growth of microorganisms.