ABSTRACT
Food microbiology and biological properties of foods After her bout with Salmonella poisoning from the raw cookie dough she had eaten, Amy decided she wanted to learn more about the microbes that cause illness. She wanted to avoid another late-night bout hugging her toilet and to spare others the same experience. Amy majored in food science and graduated with a good record. She decided to stay on for her master’s degree and chose to specialize in food microbiology. As part of her degree, she is conducting original research under a member of the faculty in the Food Science Department. She became interested in how Salmonella can get stressed under certain conditions (often when nutrients are unavailable). Salmonella cells can be injured and difficult to detect. Thus the food being tested for Salmonella may show no signs of its presence, but can still be quite dangerous. Thus, to detect the presence of Salmonella, a recovery medium must be used to culture an extract of the food sample to recover any injured cells. Amy’s work is to determine at what level a specific nutrient is required to improve recovery.
