Question

Assessment of microbial contamination and spoilage

Answer 1

Museums, archives and libraries have large working environments. The goal of this study was to determine microbial contamination in these work places and estimate the influence of microclimatic parameters and total dust content on microbial contamination. In addition, research included evaluation of ergosterol concentration and fungal bioaerosol particle size distribution. Numbers of micro-organisms in the air and on the surfaces in museums were higher (2.1 × 102–7.0 × 103 cfu/m3 and 1.4 × 102–1.7 × 104 cfu/100 cm2, respectively) than in archives and libraries (3.2 × 102–7.2 × 102 cfu/m3 and 8.4 × 102–8.8 × 102 cfu/100 cm2, respectively).

Answer 2

Microbiological contamination refers to the accidental introduction of microbes such as bacteria, yeast, mould, fungi, virus, prions, protozoa or their toxins and by-products.

Microbiological spoilage refers to food that is caused by micro organisms .

Micro organisms can grow in almost all kinds of food products.

There is always the risk of spoilage as the micro organisms are everywhere