Approaches for detection of dairy microorganisms: An update

Abstract

The detection, quantification, and isolation of microbes are routine processes in the dairy industry which are advisable for monitoring food quality from an early stage. The microbiological tests can be classified into culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques. The microorganism in milk and milk products can be detected either by the conventional culture-based approach (enumeration, isolation, characterization, and identification) or through a culture-independent approach (isolation, purification of nucleic acid, and molecular identification). The culture-dependent methods are considered as the basic gold standard technique in microbial detection. The culture-dependent techniques (traditional approaches) rely on the isolation procedure from complex food matrices and the growth of microbial colonies on selective agar to detect and quantify viable microbes and identify microbes mainly depending upon their morphology and/or biochemical characteristics. The culture-independent techniques circumvent the steps of enumeration and characterization of microbes rather based on nucleic acid-based identification. In culture-independent techniques, nucleic acid (deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)/ribonucleic acid (RNA)) is isolated and purified from the dairy matrix, and different molecular approaches are applied to identify and quantify the pathogens. This chapter gives a brief overview of the latest rapid microbiological methods.