Introduction to Food Microbiology

The primary focus of any food safety management system should be on the effective management and control of the preventive programmes such as GMPs and HACCP.
Microbiological monitoring programmes will simply verify whether these preventive measures are working.
This course will teach you:

• about the main food pathogens and barriers to growth
• how to conduct a risk assessment and compile your
  Environmental Monitoring Programme
• how to establish microbiological criteria using legislation and guidelines
• where and how to sample
• how to interpret your lab results
• what to do when your results are out of spec

This is a fast-paced course that covers a technical topic. You should have an excellent understanding of GMPs and HACCP before attending this course.

This course is aimed at The Food Safety Team, Quality Controllers, Laboratory staff, Product Development and Production Supervisors.

• Introduction
• What are micro-organisms?
• Different types of micro-organisms (bacteria, yeasts,
  moulds, viruses and parasites)
• Advantages and disadvantages of micro-organisms
• Growth, reproduction and the growth curve
• Common food pathogens
• Control of micro-organisms
• Heat treatment
• Time-temperature
• High Pressure Processing
• Irradiation
• Refrigeration
• Dehydration
• Hygienic Practices
•  Microbiology in a Food Safety Management System
• Measures for the prevention of cross-contamination
• Microbiological Risk Assessment
• Sampling and testing
• Environmental monitoring
• Interpretation of laboratory results
• and much more….

• Case studies, group activities and discussions make this a fun and interactive course
• Micro-monitoring programme templates will be provided
• Comprehensive course manual per delegate
• The workshop can be customised to ensure that current poor practices are highlighted and discussed in detail during the training
• Training can be conducted in-house with access to the workplace ensuring relevance and practical application

Delegates will need to complete a knowledge test