Linking microbial contamination to food spoilage and food waste: the role of smart packaging, spoilage risk assessments, and date labeling

Abstract

Ensuring a safe and adequate food supply is a cornerstone of human health and food security. However, a significant portion of the food produced for human consumption is wasted annually on a global scale. Reducing harvest and postharvest food waste, waste during food processing, as well as food waste at the consumer level, have been key objectives of improving and maintaining sustainability. These issues can range from damage during processing, handling, and transport, to the use of inappropriate or outdated systems, and storage and packaging-related issues. Microbial growth and (cross)contamination during harvest, processing, and packaging, which causes spoilage and safety issues in both fresh and packaged foods, is an overarching issue contributing to food waste. Microbial causes of food spoilage are typically bacterial or fungal in nature and can impact fresh, processed, and packaged foods. Moreover, spoilage can be influenced by the intrinsic factors of the food (water activity, pH), initial load of the microorganism and its interaction with the surrounding microflora, and external factors such as temperature abuse and food acidity, among others. Considering this multifaceted nature of the food system and the factors driving microbial spoilage, there is an immediate need for the use of novel approaches to predict and potentially prevent the occurrence of such spoilage to minimize food waste at the harvest, post-harvest, processing, and consumer levels. Quantitative microbial spoilage risk assessment (QMSRA) is a predictive framework that analyzes information on microbial behavior under the various conditions encountered within the food ecosystem, while employing a probabilistic approach to account for uncertainty and variability. Widespread adoption of the QMSRA approach could help in predicting and preventing the occurrence of spoilage along the food chain. Alternatively, the use of advanced packaging technologies would serve as a direct prevention strategy, potentially minimizing (cross)contamination and assuring the safe handling of foods, in order to reduce food waste at the post-harvest and retail stages. Finally, increasing transparency and consumer knowledge regarding food date labels, which typically are indicators of food quality rather than food safety, could also contribute to reduced food waste at the consumer level. The objective of this review is to highlight the impact of microbial spoilage and (cross)contamination events on food loss and waste. The review also discusses some novel methods to mitigate food spoilage and food loss and waste, and ensure the quality and safety of our food supply.

Microbial Investigation of Animal Product Hygiene in Bali and Nusa Tenggara of Indonesia

“…Analysis of TPC demonstrated the number of microbes in a product, and also indicated the adequacy of sanitation and temperature control during the process of transportation and storage of foodstuffs and also determine when a food damage begins and to declare the source of contamination (Yunita et al 2015). The number of microbes in meat can increase due to several factors including external contamination, microbial development, poor sanitation and hygiene (Ghangrekar and Das 2021;Karanth et al 2023) and could be due infection during the initial handling process to final handling (Wardhana et al 2021). It was reported by other workers from Indonesia that the results of TPC tests on food of animal origins, especially fresh meat taken from several slaughterhouse and traditional markets had relatively high microbial contamination, i.e., 52.1% of fresh meat from slaughterhouse, 100% of fresh meat samples from local slaughterhouse and 57% of fresh meat and processed meat from markets/retailers (Purwanti 2006).…”

Application of Coatings in Preservation of Fresh Salak Bali (Salacca zalacca) with Different Emulsions of Fatty Acids

“…In contrast to the treatment of A0, A1, A2, and A3 in Table 3 shows the average pH unstable so the fruits are more likely to rot. According Karanth et al [16], with the state of fruit bases will facilitate the development of bacteria or microbes to live, causing damage to the fruits [5]. Assessment is done by matching the color of fruits by color barking without treatment (control) on the first day to the fifteenth.…”

Applications of value‐added natural dye fortified with biopolymer‐based food packaging: sustainability through smart and sensible applications

“…It is estimated that by 2050, the world population will reach up to 10 billion; therefore, to fulfil the world's needs, there is an urgency to reduce food wastage (Goddek et al ., 2019). The most prominent causes of food loss include unfavourable weather conditions, insects, microbes, overproduction, non‐compliance with food safety regulations, equipment malfunction, poor handling, spillages, excessive removal of edible parts and lack of knowledge about food labels (Karanth et al ., 2023).…”