Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Slime Production Cause Of Food Spoilage

Slime producing microorganism secrete extracellular polysaccharides that gum up the process machinery. Slime causes web breaks, shrinkage, increased production costs, corrosion and foul odors. The presence of slime also affects the quality of the finished good. 

Some Staphylococcus aureus strains, identified as causative agents of mastitis in cattle, exhibit the ability of producing a viscous extracellular polysaccharide layer (slime). Slimes nowadays is considered to be a virulence factor, as it promotes bacterial adhesion onto the mammary epithelial cells and protects bacteria from opsonization and phagocytosis.

Lactic acid bacteria may also produce large amounts of an exopolysaccharide that causes slime on meats and ropy spoilage in some beverages.

Ropy slime is a typical alteration of the surface of vacuum and modified atmosphere packed cooked food products, that causes major economic losses due to the increasingly sophisticated consumer requirements.

In food manufacturing sector, contact surfaces of equipment and pipe lines used manufacturing process of food become coated with gelatinous growths or covered with developing colonies of stringy slime masses. In the case of iron piping, persistence of slime usually results in incrustation, corrosion and deterioration.
Slime Production Causes Of Food Spoilage

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