Reducing consumption of salt, specifically sodium, is one of the most effective ways to improve public health. A novel formulation for producing salmon pâté with reduced sodium content was investigated. Salmon pâtés with three different sodium concentrations were evaluated using microbiological, sensory and chemical analyses. Saltwell®, a natural salt containing a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, was used for partial substitution of sodium chloride (table salt) alone in the formulation. Replacing 80 % of the sodium chloride with Saltwell®, resulted in a 22 % reduction in sodium, without affecting microbial activity. A trained sensory panel observed minor differences in three of the twelve sensory attributes that were evaluated (coherent texture, saltiness, canned fish flavor). However, these differences were only weakly significant. Saltwell is a viable alternative to sodium chloride to produce seafood products with reduced sodium content without compromising quality and safety.

With the increased pressure and challenges of economic, environmental, and social character, the need for innovations (including both the generation and adoption of innovations) that can be implemented in supply chains increases. A number of novel concepts focusing on intelligent logistics and packaging systems are being developed and tested in the food industry, all over the world. Several of these concepts predict quality and product safety of foods for use along the food supply chain (FSC) by the food industry, distributors, and retailers, as well as consumers. In this chapter, the focus is set on models and technologies related to increased transparency and visibility in FSCs for the purpose of lowering food waste, increasing food safety, and increasing overall resource efficiency. An overview of models and concepts for transparency with specific emphasis on food monitoring systems and technologies is presented, together with an in-depth field study of an industry case. The field study covers a whole supply chain in which all actors were provided with real-time data on time and temperature of a product from production until consumption. It is concluded that the use of new technologies holds great potential and huge value in collecting and sharing quality data. However, the main challenges are found in the business relationships where the risks and willingness to share information, i.e., of being more nable food supply chains.© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When new food processing technologies are investigated as alternative to traditional thermal pasteurization processes, conventional cultivation-based methods are usually applied to evaluate microbial concentration before and after the treatment to determine the process efficiency. However, these standard methods lead to a typical underestimation of the microbes present in the sample, which may represent an issue when pathogenic strains have to be detected. Here, the efficiency of SC-CO2 pasteurization treatment in the inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes spiked on cured ham skin surface was evaluated using plate counts, flow cytometry (FCM) coupled with SYBR-Green I (SYBR-I) and propidium iodide (PI), and propidium monoazide quantitative PCR (PMA-qPCR), at different process conditions. SC-CO2 best performed at 12 MPa, 45 and 50 °C, resulting in a 7.5 log reduction of cultivable cells quantified by plate counts after 15 min of treatment, while FCM and PMA-qPCR revealed a 4 log and 2 log reduction of intact cells, respectively. This striking difference between culture-based and culture-independent quantification methods was independent from treatment time and indicated that a large fraction of the cells lost cultivability after treatment but maintained an intact membrane, likely entering in a so-called Viable But Not Culturable (VBNC) state. Our study highlights the usefulness of FCM and PMA-qPCR to assess the viability status of microbial populations and support their application in microbiological quality control in the food industry, in particular when mild pasteurization technologies are used.

The objective of this study was to investigate the inter-relationships between changes in beef color and microbial growth when steaks from longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles were overwrapped with polyvinyl chloride film and stored at 4°C. At day 0, 4, 7 and 10 instrumental color (CIE L*, a*, b* and spectral scans) and microbial counts were measured. Bacterial communities were characterized through Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism analysis. Both meat discoloration and microbial spoilage occurred at day 10. Total viable count, Enterobacteriaceae count and the relative abundance of Pseudomonas spp. and Acinetobacter spp. were significantly correlated with color metrics associated with discoloration. These findings indicate that meat discoloration and microbial growth may not be totally independent effects and changes in a*, Chroma and hue angle may be an indicator of meat spoilage under this specific storage condition. Meanwhile, Enterobacteriaceae and aerobic bacteria might play important roles in meat discoloration.

This qualitative study reports on lactic acid bacteria (LAB), yeasts and moulds isolated from three artisanal Swedish cellar-stored goat cheeses aged for 1, 3 and 5 months. Starter culture LAB dominated in the younger cheeses, and Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides, common in raw goats' milk, had persisted from the unpasteurised milk into all the cheeses. Non-starter LAB dominated in the 5 month cheese, in particular, Lactobacillus sakei, a meat-associated LAB not previously isolated from cheese. Debaryomyces hansenii, and Penicillium and Mucor species were dominant among the yeasts and moulds, respectively. The cheese rind was not formed primarily from Penicillium species as in traditional cheeses such as Camembert - rather, mycelium from Mucor mucedo contributed to rind formation. Mould species known to produce sterigmatocystin, aflatoxins or ochratoxin A in cheese were not isolated in this study; growth of mycotoxigenic Aspergilli may have been inhibited by the cool conditions in the earth-cellar (4-6 °C).