BACTERIA

Bacteria are unicellular, microscopic organisms. Cells maybe spherical, rod, spiral,
etc. and size may vary with species. Characteristics:

1. Presence of capsules or slime causing the food to be ropy and serve to

increase the resistance of bacteria to adverse conditions.

2. Bacterial spores (endospores) are more resistant to heat, chemicals and

other destructive agents than their vegetative cells.

3. Some species form long chains and others clump together under certain
conditions.

4. They cause food to be unattractive by pigmentation, formation of films that

cover the surface and cloudiness of liquids due to slime formation.

5. They hydrolyzes complex carbohydrates to simple sugars; proteins to

peptides, ammonia or amines and amino acids, and fats to glycerol and fatty
acids.

BACTERIA IMPORTANT IN FOOD MICROBIOLOGY

A: Non-spore forming, Acid-producing species

1. Lactic acid bacteria

• Non-spore forming, acid-producing bacteria called “lactic”

• Long or short rods or cocci

• Microaerophilic, Gram positive, catalase negative

• Needs complex foods such as various vitamins, amino acids, peptides and
fermentable carbohydrates

• Either homofermentative or heterofermentative

Genera include Streptococcus, Pediococcus, Leuconostocs (lactic cocci) and

Lactobacillus(rod lactic)

a. Streptococcus exists in pairs, short or long chains depending on species; all

species are homofermentative.

Groups of Streptococci important in foods (based on temperature

requirement)

1. Pyogenic group (pus-producing) – pathogenic Streptococci; cannot grow at

10oC or 45oC
2. Viridens group – high temperature (thermoduric) Streptococci that can grow
at 45oC but not at 10oC.

3. Lactic group – can grow at 10oC but not at 45oC; contains the important dairy
bacteria (S. lactis and S. cremoris); used as starters for cheese, cultured
buttermilk and sour types of butter; can tolerate no more than 2-4% salt,
therefore not concerned in lactic fermentation of brined vegetables.

4. Enterococcus group – can grow both at 10oC and at 45oC; thermoduric,

readily survive pasteurization treatments of milk or even more heating; can
tolerate 6.5% or more salt; can grow at alkaline pH of 9.6; can grow at wide
range of temperature; some are multiplying at temperature as low as 5-8oC
and most at 45-50oC. Examples are S.faecalis,var.liquefaciens, S. faecalis var.
zymogenes

b. Pediococcus – pairs, short chains or tetrads (divides in two planes); gram

positive, catalase negative and microaerophilic; homofermentative; used in
fermenting meat (sausages); grow fairly at 5.5% salt; optimum temperature
is 25-32oC, range is 7-45oC; responsible for spoilage in alcoholic beverages.

c. Leuconostocs – ferments sugar to lactic acid plus considerable amounts of

acetic acid, ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide; heterofermentative.

Characteristics that makes Leuconostocs important in foods:

1. Production of diacetyl and other flavoring products;

2. Tolerance of high salt concentration, thus resent in sauerkraut and dill

pickle fermentation;

3. Ability to initiate lactic acid fermentation in vegetable products more

rapidly than other lactic or competing bacteria.

4. Permits production of more acid to inhibit non-lactic bacteria to multiply.

5. Tolerance to high sugar concentrations- up to 55 to 60% for

L.mesenteroides, permitting the organism to grow in syrups, liquids, cake
and ice cream mixes.

6. Production of considerable amounts of carbon dioxide gas from sugars

leading to undesirable “openness” in some cheeses;

7. Heavy slime production in media containing sucrose, e.g. dextrans.

d. Lactobacillus – long, slender rods often occurring in long chains; those in

foods are microaerophilic, catalase negative, Gram positive; ferments sugars
to lactic acid.
 Species can be separated based on fermentation of sugar and temperature:

I: Obligate homofermentative lactobacilli – optimum temperature of 37oC or

more; thermo bacteria; they do no ferment pentose. Examples: L.caucasicus,
L. bulgaricus, L.helveticus, L.delbrueckii, L.lactis, L.acidophilus,
L.thermophilus

II: Facultative heterofermentative - lower optimal temperature

o
(30 C).Members of this group ferment pentose. Examples are L.casei,
L.plantarum, L.leichmanii,L.sake

III: Obligate heterofermentative – produce carbon dioxide from glucose. High

temperature species is L.fermentii; optimal temperature species include
L.brevis, L.buchnerii, L.pastorianum, L.hilgardii; L. trichodes

2. Propionobacteriaceae (Propionobacterium)

• Small, non-motile; Gram positive; asporogenous, catalase positive; cocci

• Ferments lactic acid, carbohydrates, polyalcohols to propionic acid and acetic

acid and carbon dioxide

P.shermanii – ferments lactose, produce gas (caused holes or eyes in Swiss

cheese)

3. Acetobacter

• Acetic acid-producing bacteria

• Oxidize ethanol to acetic acid and other organic compounds to other

oxidation products

• Motile and non-motile

• Gram negative to gram variable

• Aerobic rods, usually catalase positive

Characteristics important to food industry:

1. Use in making vinegar

2. Harmful in making alcoholic beverages

 3. Strong oxidizing power, useful in oxidation of D-sorbitol to L-sorbose in the
preparation of ascorbic acid by synthetic methods.

4. Excessive sliminess of some species like A.xylinum (in the preparation of

nata)

B: Soil and other Organisms

1. Pseudomonas

• Killed by fairly high temperature (40oC); not resistant to drying (non-spore

forming)

• Spoilage organisms; Gram negative; usually motile; asporogenous rods

• With one or more flagella on one or both ends

• Limited by fairly high water activity (0.97-0.98)

Characteristics important to foods:

1. Ability to oxidize variety of non-carbohydrates, carbon compounds for

energy

2. Utilize almost all carbohydrates

3. Ability to produce variety of products that affects flavor deleteriously

4. Ability to synthesize their own growth factors such as vitamins.

5. Some species have the ability to have proteolytic or lipolytic activity

6. Aerobic tendency, enabling them to reproduce rapidly and produced

oxidized products and slime on surface of foods.

7. Ability to grow well at low temperature (refrigeration)

8. Pigment production of some species causing spot on foods.

P.fluorescens – proteolytic and strongly lipolytic; produced pyoverdin

(greenish fluorescence)

P.nigrifaciens- cream-colored, reddish, brown or black

2. Flavobacterium, Achromobacter, Alcaligenes

Family Achromobacteriaceae
• Fairly high limiting water activity; small to medium-size rod; Gram negative

• Aerobic to facultative anaerobic; readily killed by heat, unable to grow above

37oC

• Flagella all over the cells

• Carbohydrates not attacked

• Number of species are psychrophilic

a. Flavobacterium yellow to orange –pigmented; caused discoloration on the

surface of meats, eggs, butter and milk; some species are psychrotropic
(found in thawing vegetables); tends to form into clumps.

b. Achromobacter – unpigmented bacteria; lipolytic, producing slimy growth

on foods.

c. Alcaligenes – produced alkaline reaction in the medium. Examples are

A.viscolactis – cause ropiness of milk; A.metalcaligenes – gives slimy
growth on cottage cheese. These organisms come from manure, feeds,
soil, water and dust.

3. Spore-forming rods (Family: Bacillaceae)

The resistance of bacterial spores to heat and other adverse conditions

makes them a problem in canning and other methods of preservation.

a. Bacillus

• Spore-forming rods, endospores do not swell the rods in which they are
formed; aerobic to facultative

• Some species are proteolytic, others are amylolytic (production of amylases

which hydrolyze starch outside the cells) or pectolytic (pectinase – softening
of plant tissues or loss of jelling power on fruit juice)

Examples:

B.subtilis –spores are less heat resistant , mesophilic

B.stearothermophilus – obligate thermophiles

B.coagulans – facultative thermophiles produce large amount of lactic acid

from sugars; thermophilic flat-sour species; spoil canned vegetables and
coagulation of evaporated milk.

B.cereus – can be isolated from cooked rice; pathogenic

 b. Clostridium

• Anaerobic to microaerophilic bacteria; endospores of species usually swell

the end or middle of the rods in which they are formed.

• Catalase negative; actively ferment carbohydrates with the production of

acids, including butyric, and gases, usually carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

• Some species are mesophilic or thermophilic and proteolytic or non-

proteolytic. C.thermosaccharolyticum is an example of a saccharolytic
obligate thermophile; causes gaseous spoilage of canned vegetables

• Putrefaction of foods often is caused by mesophilic, proteolytic species such

as C.putrefaciens

• Violent disruption of the curd in milk by C.perfringens or similar species

results in “stormy fermentation”of milk; and the lactate-fermenting
C.butyricum is a cause of late gas in cured cheese.

• Soil is the primary source, may come also from bad silage, feeds and manure.

• C.botulinum produce a soluble exotoxin while growing in foods..This is gram

positive, anaerobic spore forming rod with oval to cylindrical shape and
terminal to subterminal spores. There are 7 types recognized (A to G). Types
A,B,E,F and G cause disease in humans.

C: Organisms Associated with Films

1. Escherichia, Aerobacter, Serratia, Salmonella (Family Enterobacteriaceae)

• Gram negative asporogenous, short rods, aerobic and facultative anaerobic

a. Escherichia and Aerobacter – called coliforms

• Ferments lactose with gas formation

• Leading species are:

E.coli – intestinal origin

Aerobacter aerogenes – plant origin

Characteristic of coliform bacteria that makes it important in food spoilage:

 1. Ability to grow well in a variety of substrates and to utilized a number of
carbohydrates and some other organic compounds as food for energy and
fairly simple nitrogenous compounds as source of nitrogen.

2. Ability to synthesize most of the necessary vitamins.

3. Ability to grow well over a fairly wide range of temperature, from below
10oC to about 46oC

4. Ability to produce considerable amount of acid and gas from sugars

5. Ability to cause off-flavors often described as “unclean” or “barny”

6. Ability of A.aerogenes to cause sliminess or ropiness of foods

b. Serratia

• Small, aerobic, Gram negative, motile rods

• Produces red pigments which cause discoloration on the surface of foods

• S.marcescens, common species causing red bread

c. Salmonella

• Caused food infection

• Ferments glucose with gas production

• Grows best on non-acid foods at ordinary room temperature

• Examples are:

S. typhimurium – most often encountered in human food poisoning outbreaks

S.typhosa – caused typhoid fever

S.paratyphi – caused paratyphoid fever

d. Proteus

• Straight, gram negative motile, mesophilic rods. Involved in spoilage of

meats, sea foods and eggs

• Suspects to cause poisoning in unrefrigerated foods

• Acid and gas are produced from sugars

• P.vulgaris is the common species

e. Shigella

• Caused bacillary dysenteries, maybe transported by foods

2. Micrococcus and Staphylococcus (Family Micrococcaceae)

a. Micrococcus

• Spherical cells arranged in irregular masses but never in packets

• Gram-positive aerobic, and catalase negative

• Optimal temperature around 25-30oC and grow well on ordinary laboratory

culture media

• Often found on inadequately cleaned and sanitized food utensils and

equipment

Characteristics of Micrococci important in foods:

1. Some species can utilize ammonium slats or other simple nitrogenous

compounds as sole source of nitrogen

2. Most species can ferment sugars with the production of moderate

amounts of acid

3. Some are acid proteolytic (M. freudenreichii)

4. Some are very salt tolerant, thus can grow in meat curing brines and brine
tanks

5. Many are thermoduric (survive pasteurization treatment given to market

milk : M.varians)

6. Some are pigmented and discolor the surface of foods: M. flavus is yellow
and M.roseus is pink

7. Some species can grow fairly well at around 10oC or below

b. Staphylococcus

* Gram positive, grows singly, in pairs, in tetrads or in irregular grapelike

clusters

* S.aureus usually gives yellow to orange growth, although it maybe white

occasionally

* Requires a an organic source of nitrogen; facultative in oxygen requirement