Bioaerosol monitoring is a rapidly emerging area of industrial hygiene. Microbial roles in atmospheric processes are thought to be species specific and potentially depend on cell viability. Accumulating evidence suggests that exposure to bioaerosols may cause adverse health effects, including disease. Studies of bioaerosols have primarily focused on chemical composition and biological composition, and the negative effects thereof on ecosystems and human health have largely gone unnoticed. This gap can be attributed to international standards on acceptable maximum bioaerosol loads not being uniform and the lack of uniform standardized methods for collection and analysis of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols. In this chapter, bioaerosol composition, relevance of bioaerosols to the food processing facility, sampling and detection approaches, and complications were discussed.
Bioaerosols are defined as aerosols that comprise particles of biological origin or activity that may affect living organisms through infectivity, allergenicity, toxicity, or through pharmacological or other processes. Interest in bioaerosol exposure has increased over the last few decades. Exposure to bioaerosols may cause three major problems in the food industry, namely: (i) contamination of food (spoilage); (ii) allergic reactions in individual consumers; or (iii) infection by means of pathogenic microorganisms present in the aerosol. The aim of this study was to characterise the culturable fraction of bioaerosols in the production environment of a fruit juice manufacturing facility and categorise isolates as harmful, innocuous or potentially beneficial to the industry, personnel and environment. Active sampling was used to collect representative samples of five areas in the facility during peak and off-peak seasons. Areas included the entrance, preparation and mixing area, between production lines, bottle dispersion and filling stations. Microbes were isolated and identified using 16S, 26S or ITS amplicon sequencing. High microbial counts and species diversity were detected in the facility. 239 bacteria, 41 yeasts and 43 moulds were isolated from the air in the production environment. Isolates were categorised into three main groups, namely 27 innocuous, 26 useful and 39 harmful bioaerosols. Harmful bioaerosols belonging to the genera Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Penicillium and Candida were present. Although innocuous and useful bioaerosols do not negatively influence human health their presence act as an indicator that an ideal environment exists for possible harmful bioaerosols to emerge.
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