In the article below Kevin Hunt, Marine Institute/UCD, gives an overview of his visit to the Polytechnic Institute of Braganca, where he attended a four day workshop on predictive modelling in food microbiology. Funding for this visit was provided under the safefood Training & Mobility Programme. More information on the programme available here.
Biography
I work at the Marine Institute in Galway as a Microbiology Analyst, and I am also a Research Masters student with UCD. My research looks at how the risk of viral contamination is assessed in commercial shellfish. Visit aims and objectives
In September 2014, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) hosted a four day workshop on the use of predictive modelling in food microbiology. The aim was to demonstrate how mathematical models are used to predict the reaction of food related pathogens to changes in the environment.risk of viral contamination is assessed in commercial shellfish.
Purpose and relevance
Predictive models are relevant in every food microbiology field. Commercial food must be treated or stored in particular ways that reduce the risk of contamination or spoilage. Overcompensating for this risk, however, can lead to loss of flavour or nutritional value. To determine optimal treatment requires a working model of how pathogens respond to factors like temperature and pH, as well as the matrix of the food itself.
Activities
A series of lectures covered the theory of predictive modelling. These alternated with practical sessions, which tackled real implementations of this theory using the statistical language R. The course contents included single factor models, and models with multiple factors interacting over time. There were additional lectures given by Vijay Juneja, a lead scientist with the USDA, on how models like this are used in everyday agriculture and food science.
Transfer of knowledge
The notes and problem sets provided for the workshop were very comprehensive, and represent a thorough introduction to the use of statistical programming in food safety. The backbone of the theory will be useful to the work of the Marine Institute in keeping up to date with advances in microbiological risk assessment. The language R is widely used in numeric biology, and the code provided will be useful in training staff in its use in the future. My own research, looking at risk assessment of Norovirus in commercial shellfish, has already been strengthened by the knowledge gained in this workshop, which will be a potential boost for publication of data.
Benefits and conclusions
The connections made with the academic instructors have been very helpful so far, and I anticipate staying in contact with them for the future. A lot of work clearly went into the notes and course documents provided, and they have been a popular resource so far for colleagues interested in the field. Students attending the workshop were from a diverse set of backgrounds, and the connections made with them were a tremendous illustration of how flexible and far-ranging tools like these can be. If the workshop is run again, I would recommend it to other researchers interested in statistical modelling and microbiology.
L-R: Janina Schroeder, Unknown, Vinicius Pimentel Silva, Dr. Vasco Cadavez (instructor), Dr. Alastair Carr, Dr. Ursula A. Gonzales-Barron (instructor), Kevin Hunt (participant), Dr. Vijay Juneja (instructor), Jean-Michel Nebout, Dr. Cristina Saraiva. 11-09-2014, IPB Bragança.
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