Microbial Food Safety in China: Past, Present, and Future.

Food safety is a major public health issue worldwide, especially in heavily populated countries such as China. As in other countries, the predominant food safety issues in China are foodborne diseases caused by microbial pathogens. Hence, this review provides a systematic overview on microbial food safety in the past, present, and future in China. Management of microbial food safety in China is generally divided into three stages: Stage I before 2000, Stage II from 2000 to 2009, and Stage III from 2010 to present. At Stage I, China's main food concern gradually shifted from food security to food safety. At Stage II, foodborne pathogen surveillance was initiated and gradually became a focus of microbial food safety marked by the establishment of national food contamination monitoring system in 2000 and the promulgation of China Food Safety Law in 2009, although chemical food safety was considered a priority issue during this stage. At Stage III, microbial food safety was recognized as a high priority supported by many national food safety policies such as the launch of a national foodborne disease molecular tracing network in 2013 and the revision of China Food Safety Law in 2015. Advancement in food safety education and research support by central and local governments has also made significant contributions to tackling and solving microbial food safety problems. Management in the future should be focused on active involvement of food industries in mitigating microbial risks by introducing ISO 22000, regulatory enforcement to oversee compliances to standards and rules, and application of molecular tools for fast detection and source tracking to support decision-making. Future research efforts may include, but are not limited to, exploitation of interaction mechanisms among pathogenic bacteria, food and gut microbiota, smart traceability of microbial hazards, and development of novel antimicrobial strategies.

The China National Foodborne Pathogen Surveillance System: Twenty Years of Experience and Achievements.

National foodborne pathogen surveillance is a system that collects data regarding food contamination by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other harmful microbial factors. The surveillance data are used to understand the potential microbial risks in different categories of food and to provide science-based data for risk assessment and development of reference standards in the form of maximum limits. This review introduces stepwise expansion of the foodborne pathogen surveillance in China, relevant policies, function and duties of different organizations and institutions, surveillance plans, and quality control. Achievements of the surveillance system and future challenges are also presented.

Tasting the terroir of wine yeast innovation.

Wine is an archetypal traditional fermented beverage with strong territorial and socio-cultural connotations. Its 7000 year history is patterned by a tradition of innovation. Every value-adding innovation - whether in the vineyard, winery, supply chain or marketplace - that led to the invention of a new tradition spurred progress and created a brighter future from past developments. In a way, wine traditions can be defined as remembered innovations from the distant past - inherited knowledge and wisdom that withstood the test of time. Therefore, it should not be assumed a priori that tradition and innovation are polar opposites. The relations between the forces driven by the anchors of tradition and the wings of innovation do not necessarily involve displacement, conflict or exclusiveness. Innovation can strengthen wine tradition, and the reinvention of a tradition-bound practice, approach or concept can foster innovation. In cases where a paradigm-shifting innovation disrupts a tradition, the process of such an innovation transitioning into a radically new tradition can become protracted while proponents of divergent opinions duke it out. Sometimes these conflicting opinions are based on fact, and sometimes not. The imperfections of such a debate between the 'ancients' and the 'moderns' can, from time to time, obscure the line between myth and reality. Therefore, finding the right balance between traditions worth keeping and innovations worth implementing can be complex. The intent here is to harness the creative tension between science fiction and science fact when innovation's first-principles challenge the status quo by re-examining the foundational principles about a core traditional concept, such as terroir. Poignant questions are raised about the importance of the terroir (biogeography) of yeasts and the value of the microbiome of grapes to wine quality. This article imagines a metaphorical terroir free from cognitive biases where diverse perspectives can converge to uncork the effervescent power of territorial yeast populations as well as 'nomadic' yeast starter cultures. At the same time, this paper also engages in mental time-travel. A future scenario is imagined, explored, tested and debated where terroir-less yeast avatars are equipped with designer genomes to safely and consistently produce, individually or in combination with region-specific wild yeasts and or other starter cultures, high-quality wine according to the preferences of consumers in a range of markets. The purpose of this review is to look beyond the horizon and to synthesize a link between what we know now and what could be. This article informs readers where to look without suggesting what they must see as a way forward. In the context of one of the world's oldest fermentation industries - steeped in a rich history of tradition and innovation - the mantra here is: respect the past, lead the present and secure the future of wine.

Methods for detection of viable foodborne pathogens: current state-of-art and future prospects.

The ability to rapidly detect viable pathogens in food is important for public health and food safety reasons. Culture-based detection methods, the traditional means of demonstrating microbial viability, tend to be laborious, time consuming and slow to provide results. Several culture-independent methods to detect viable pathogens have been reported in recent years, including both nucleic acid-based (PCR combined with use of cell viability dyes or reverse-transcriptase PCR to detect messenger RNA) and phage-based (plaque assay or phage amplification and lysis plus PCR/qPCR, immunoassay or enzymatic assay to detect host DNA, progeny phages or intracellular components) methods. Some of these newer methods, particularly phage-based methods, show promise in terms of speed, sensitivity of detection and cost compared with culture for food testing. This review provides an overview of these new approaches and their food testing applications, and discusses their current limitations and future prospects in relation to detection of viable pathogens in food. KEY POINTS: • Cultural methods may be 'gold standard' for assessing viability of pathogens, but they are too slow. • Nucleic acid-based methods offer speed of detection but not consistently proof of cell viability. • Phage-based methods appear to offer best alternative to culture for detecting viable pathogens.

Novel mutagenesis and screening technologies for food microorganisms: advances and prospects.

Microorganisms are indispensable in the food industry, but wild-type strains hardly meet the current industrial demands due to several undesirable traits. Therefore, microbial strain improvement offers a critical solution to enhance the food industry. Traditional techniques for food microbial improvement, such as the use of chemical mutagens and manual isolation/purification, are inefficient, time-consuming, and laborious, restricting further progress in the area of food fermentation. In this review, the applications of novel mutagenesis and screening technologies used for the improvement of food microbes were summarized, including random mutagenesis based on physical irradiation, microbial screening facilitated by a microtiter plate, fluorescence-activated cell or droplet sorting, and microscaled fermentation in a microtiter plate or microbioreactor. In comparison with conventional methods, these new tools have the potential in accelerating microbial strain improvement and their combined applications could create a new trend for strain development. However, several problems that could affect its potential application may include the following: the lack of specific mutagenesis devices and biosensing systems, the insufficient improvement of the mixed culture system, the low efficiency when using filamentous fungi and flocculating bacteria, and the insufficient safety assessment on harnessing genome-editing technology. Therefore, future works on strain improvement remain challenging for the food industry.

A Review on the Effect of High Pressure Processing (HPP) on Gelatinization and Infusion of Nutrients.

High pressure processing (HPP) is a novel technology that involves subjecting foods to high hydrostatic pressures of the order of 100-600 MPa. This technology has been proven successful for inactivation of numerous microorganisms, spores and enzymes in foods, leading to increased shelf life. HPP is not limited to cold pasteurization, but has many other applications. The focus of this paper is to explore other applications of HPP, such as gelatinization, forced water absorption and infusion of nutrients. The use of high pressure in producing cold gelatinizing effects, imparting unique properties to food and improving food quality will be also discussed, highlighting the latest published studies and the innovative methods adopted.

[Microbiological safety of food: development of normative and methodical base].

The main results and prospects of fundamental and applied hygienic research of the laboratory of biosafety and nutrimicrobiome analysis of the Federal Research Centre of Nutrition, Biotechnology and Food Safety (hereinafter - the Institute of Nutrition) in the direction of developing a regulatory and methodological framework for assessing the microbiological safety of food are reviewed. The formation of microbiological regulation as a scientific analytical and administrative managerial process in the former USSR and the Russian Federation is considered in the context of historical data, including personal contribution of the scientists of the Institute of Nutrition and other specialists. The basic principles of regulation are emphasized: the scientific validity of the established criteria and requirements, the feasibility, technological attainability, differentiation according to the degree of danger to the health of consumers, preventive nature. The resource of the national normative and methodological base in the field of microbiological food safety at the turn of the century is characterized, the features of the introduction of the microbiological risk assessment (MRA) methodology in the substantiation of Russian norms and measures for the prevention of food infections are described. The information is given on the developed guidance documents on MRA and on the examples of norms adopted on its basis. The article covers the issues of reglamentation the requirements for food safety and reducing the spread of new pathogens Stx-Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Enterobacter sakazakii, Campylobacter spp. in the food chain based on risk-oriented approaches. The necessity of taking specific measures for the prevention of cross-contamination in the poultry processing industry is substantiated, taking into account the evidence of the high adaptability of C. jejuni isolated from domestic raw poultry. In the sanitarian-mycological aspect, the monitoring perspective of mould fungi, taking into account their chemotypes, in cereals and non-grain plant products is shown to predict the risk of mycotoxin accumulation and take timely measures. The need to assess the impact on the population, taking into account the characteristics of consumption in the country, as well as the development of criteria for indirect risk of residues are argued for regulation of the antibiotics in food. In light of the challenges in the field of agro- and food technologies to public health at the present stage, contributing to the acceleration of microbial evolution and the emergence of new risks in food, the priority tasks of improving the regulatory and methodological base for assessing microbiological safety have been identified, with an emphasis on the introduction into the process of substantiating the norms of innovative OMICs-technologies based on the achievements of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics.

The impacts of Schizosaccharomyces on winemaking.

In the past century, yeasts from the genus Saccharomyces represented the only option in fermentation industries, such as winemaking, to produce wine, beer, and other fermented products. However, other genera are currently emerging to solve challenges in modern enology. Schizosaccharomyces pombe is showing promising results in solving specific challenges in northern, cool viticulture regions with highly acidic wines by deacidifying these wines through its malic acid metabolism. In addition, this microorganism is considered beneficial in warm growing regions with challenges such as the control of wine food safety problems such as the presence of biogenic amines, ochratoxin A, or ethyl carbamate. Indeed, the genus Schizosaccharomyces positively influences other important wine quality parameters, such as color and polysaccharide content. However, the main challenge of using this genus remains the selection of proper strains that alleviate problems such as the production of high acetate concentrations. Industries other than wine production such as ginger fermentation, apple wine, Kei-apple fermentation, plum wine, sparkling wine, and bilberry fermentation industries have also started to study Schizosaccharomyces species as an alternative tool for solving specific related problems. The review discusses the influence of Schizosaccharomyces on different fermentation quality parameters and its main applications in different industries.

The use of next generation sequencing for improving food safety: Translation into practice.

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) combined with powerful bioinformatic approaches are revolutionising food microbiology. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of single isolates allows the most detailed comparison possible hitherto of individual strains. The two principle approaches for strain discrimination, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis and genomic multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) are showing concordant results for phylogenetic clustering and are complementary to each other. Metabarcoding and metagenomics, applied to total DNA isolated from either food materials or the production environment, allows the identification of complete microbial populations. Metagenomics identifies the entire gene content and when coupled to transcriptomics or proteomics, allows the identification of functional capacity and biochemical activity of microbial populations. The focus of this review is on the recent use and future potential of NGS in food microbiology and on current challenges. Guidance is provided for new users, such as public health departments and the food industry, on the implementation of NGS and how to critically interpret results and place them in a broader context. The review aims to promote the broader application of NGS technologies within the food industry as well as highlight knowledge gaps and novel applications of NGS with the aim of driving future research and increasing food safety outputs from its wider use.

100 Years Since Tolaas: Bacterial Blotch of Mushrooms in the 21st Century.

Among the biotic constraints of common mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) production, bacterial blotch is considered the most important mushroom disease in terms of global prevalence and economic impact. Etiology and management of bacterial blotch has been a major concern since its original description in 1915. Although Pseudomonas tolaasii is thought to be the main causal agent, various Pseudomonas species, as well as organisms from other genera have been reported to cause blotch symptoms on mushroom caps. In this review, we provide an updated overview on the etiology, epidemiology, and management strategies of bacterial blotch disease. First, diversity of the causal agent(s) and utility of high throughput sequencing-based approaches in the precise characterization and identification of blotch pathogen(s) is explained. Further, due to the limited options for use of conventional pesticides in mushroom farms against blotch pathogen(s), we highlight the role of balanced threshold of relative humidity and temperature in mushroom farms to combat the disease in organic and conventional production. Additionally, we discuss the possibility of the use of biological control agents (either antagonistic mushroom-associated bacterial strains or bacteriophages) for blotch management as one of the sustainable approaches for 21st century agriculture. Finally, we aim to elucidate the association of mushroom microbiome in cap development and productivity on one hand, and blotch incidence/outbreaks on the other hand.

Advanced molecular diagnostic techniques for detection of food-borne pathogens: Current applications and future challenges.

The elimination of disease-causing microbes from the food supply is a primary goal and this review deals with the overall techniques available for detection of food-borne pathogens. Now-a-days conventional methods are replaced by advanced methods like Biosensors, Nucleic Acid-based Tests (NAT), and different PCR-based techniques used in molecular biology to identify specific pathogens. Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp., and pathogens are detected in contaminated food items that cause always diseases in human in any one or the other way. Identification of food-borne pathogens in a short period of time is still a challenge to the scientific field in general and food technology in particular. The low level of food contamination by major pathogens requires specific sensitive detection platforms and the present area of hot research looking forward to new nanomolecular techniques for nanomaterials, make them suitable for the development of assays with high sensitivity, response time, and portability. With the sound of these, we attempt to highlight a comprehensive overview about food-borne pathogen detection by rapid, sensitive, accurate, and cost affordable in situ analytical methods from conventional methods to recent molecular approaches for advanced food and microbiology research.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids in marine bacteria and strategies to enhance their production.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play an important role in human diet. Despite the wide-ranging importance and benefits from heart health to brain functions, humans and mammals cannot synthesize PUFAs de novo. The primary sources of PUFA are fish and plants. Due to the increasing concerns associated with food security as well as issues of environmental contaminants in fish oil, there has been considerable interest in the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids from alternative resources which are more sustainable, safer, and economical. For instance, marine bacteria, particularly the genus of Shewanella, Photobacterium, Colwellia, Moritella, Psychromonas, Vibrio, and Alteromonas, are found to be one among the major microbial producers of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Recent developments in the area with a focus on the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids from marine bacteria as well as the metabolic engineering strategies for the improvement of PUFA production are discussed.

Escherichia coli testing and enumeration in live bivalve shellfish - Present methods and future directions.

A wide variety of pathogenic agents such as bacteria, viruses and parasites can be greatly concentrated in filter feeding bivalve molluscan shellfish (BMS), that are grown in faecally contaminated waters. Human health risks associated with the consumption of BMS are also compounded by the traditional pattern of consuming them raw or lightly cooked. Because of these well-established food safety risks, food legislation such as that in Europe stipulates that BMS production areas are monitored for faecal contamination and classified accordingly. In this review we provide information regarding the background and use of methods for determining and quantifying Escherichia coli (E. coli) in shellfish matrices, focussing on the Most Probable Number (MPN) based approach. This review also discusses other techniques for determining E. coli in food matrices, as well as specific tests across a range of other food microbiology applications. This information draws on several sources: published peer-reviewed reports, data derived from proficiency testing/ring trials, depuration and challenge studies, as well as specific examples from BMS classification and long-term monitoring studies. We also provide a discussion on possible avenues for future direction regarding testing methods in this food microbiology sector.

Review of conventional and novel food processing methods on food allergens.

With the turn of this century, novel food processing techniques have become commercially very important because of their profound advantages over the traditional methods. These novel processing methods tend to preserve the characteristic properties of food including their organoleptic and nutritional qualities better when compared with the conventional food processing methods. During the same period of time, there is a clear rise in the populations suffering from food allergies, especially infants and children. Though, this fact is widely attributed to the changing livelihood of population in both developed and developing nations and to the introduction of new food habits with advent of novel foods and new processing techniques, their complete role is still uncertain. Under the circumstance, it is very important to understand the structural changes in the protein as food is processed to comprehend whether the specific processing technique (conventional and novel) is increasing or mitigating the allergenicity. Various modern means are now being employed to understand the conformational changes in the protein which can affect the allergenicity. In this review, the processing effects on protein structure and allergenicity are discussed along with the insinuations of recent studies and techniques for establishing a platform to investigate future pathway to reduce or eliminate allergenicity in the population.

Recent Advances in Food Processing Using High Hydrostatic Pressure Technology.

High hydrostatic pressure is an emerging non-thermal technology that can achieve the same standards of food safety as those of heat pasteurization and meet consumer requirements for fresher tasting, minimally processed foods. Applying high-pressure processing can inactivate pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and enzymes, as well as modify structures with little or no effects on the nutritional and sensory quality of foods. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have approved the use of high-pressure processing (HPP), which is a reliable technological alternative to conventional heat pasteurization in food-processing procedures. This paper presents the current applications of HPP in processing fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, dairy, and egg products; such applications include the combination of pressure and biopreservation to generate specific characteristics in certain products. In addition, this paper describes recent findings on the microbiological, chemical, and molecular aspects of HPP technology used in commercial and research applications.

The rise and decline in Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis outbreaks attributed to egg-containing foods in the United States, 1973-2009.

Salmonella enterica causes an estimated 1 million domestically acquired foodborne illnesses annually. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) is among the top three serovars of reported cases of Salmonella. We examined trends in SE foodborne outbreaks from 1973 to 2009 using Joinpoint and Poisson regression. The annual number of SE outbreaks increased sharply in the 1970s and 1980s but declined significantly after 1990. Over the study period, SE outbreaks were most frequently attributed to foods containing eggs. The average rate of SE outbreaks attributed to egg-containing foods reported by states began to decline significantly after 1990, and the proportion of SE outbreaks attributed to egg-containing foods began declining after 1997. Our results suggest that interventions initiated in the 1990s to decrease SE contamination of shell eggs may have been integral to preventing SE outbreaks.

Production, properties, and industrial food application of lactic acid bacteria-derived exopolysaccharides.

Exopolysaccharides (EPS)-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are industrially important microorganisms in the development of functional food products and are used as starter cultures or coadjutants to develop fermented foods. There is large variability in EPS production by LAB in terms of chemical composition, quantity, molecular size, charge, presence of side chains, and rigidity of the molecules. The main body of the review will cover practical aspects concerning the structural diversity structure of EPS, and their concrete application in food industries is reported in details. To strengthen the food application and process feasibility of LAB EPS at industrial level, a future academic research should be combined with industrial input to understand the technical shortfalls that EPS can address.

Streptococcus thermophilus, an emerging and promising tool for heterologous expression: Advantages and future trends.

Streptococcus thermophilus is the second most used bacterium in dairy industry. It is daily consumed by millions of people through the worldwide consumption of yogurts, cheeses and fermented milks. S. thermophilus presents many features that make it a good candidate for the production of heterologous proteins. First, its ability to be naturally transformable allows obtaining swiftly and easily recombinant strains using various genetic tools available. Second, its Generally Recognised As Safe status and its ability to produce beneficial molecules or to liberate bioactive peptides from milk proteins open up the way for the development of new functional foods to maintain health and well-being of consumers. Finally, its ability to survive the intestinal passage and to be metabolically active in gastrointestinal tract allows considering S. thermophilus as a potential tool for delivering various biological molecules to the gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this review is therefore to take stock of various genetic tools which can be employed in S. thermophilus to produce heterologous proteins and to highlight the advantages and future trends of use of this bacterium as a heterologous expression host.

Innovations in food preservation in pastoral zones.

Food preservation makes a significant contribution to food security and food safety in pastoral communities with limited access to external food sources. Raw materials are preserved by heating, drying, smoking, pickling, salting, curing or fermentation with microorganisms. This article describes preservation techniques in the pastoral context, targeting the major dietary components of milk, meat and cereals; related health risks; and potential innovations for food preservation. Sustainable elimination of pathogenic microorganisms, preventing re-contamination, sporulation and the growth of zoonotic and foodborne microorganisms, is necessary to enhance food safety and ensure food security by reducing post-harvest losses and food waste. However, modern preservation procedures are difficult to adapt to the lifestyles of pastoralists and so are rarely implemented or accepted. Innovations should therefore focus on improving existing accepted procedures by promoting synergistic combinations to compensate for the disadvantages of these traditional techniques and ensure the quality of the raw material right up until consumption. Drying and spontaneous fermentation are key preservation techniques among pastoralists that serve as opportunities for innovation and can be shared across pastoral communities. Further potential for innovation lies in the unique, largely uncharacterised, microflora biodiversity of fermented products. The characterisation, safety assessment and conservation of these microorganisms are needed to develop locally adapted starter cultures that retain or improve on the desired characteristics of the finished product. Careful sensitisation of stakeholders, the study of social acceptance and capacitybuilding at all levels are required to achieve the sustainable implementation of such innovations, which will contribute to enhanced food security and safety.

Dans les communautés pastorales, dont l'accès aux sources d'approvisionnement alimentaire extérieures est limité, la conservation des denrées alimentaires joue un grand rôle pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et l'innocuité des aliments. Les méthodes permettant de conserver les aliments crus sont le traitement thermique, la déshydratation et le séchage, le fumage ou fumaison, le saumurage, le salage et la fermentation. Les auteurs décrivent les techniques de conservation pratiquées par les sociétés pastorales, axées sur les composantes les plus importantes du régime alimentaire des populations concernées, à savoir le lait, la viande et les céréales, ainsi que les risques sanitaires qui leur sont associés et les innovations potentielles dans ce domaine. Afin de minimiser les pertes post-récolte et le gaspillage alimentaire et d'améliorer ainsi l'innocuité des aliments et la sécurité alimentaire, il est indispensable d'éliminer durablement les agents pathogènes, d'empêcher la survenue de nouvelles contaminations et d'éviter les risques de sporulation et de croissance de micro-organismes zoonotiques ou d'origine alimentaire. Cependant, les procédures modernes de conservation sont difficiles à concilier avec le mode de vie des pasteurs, ce qui explique qu'elles soient mal acceptées et rarement mises en pratique. Les efforts d'innovation devront donc porter en priorité sur l'amélioration des procédures actuellement acceptées et encourager le recours simultané à plusieurs méthodes afin de créer une synergie qui permette d'atténuer les inconvénients des techniques traditionnelles tout en garantissant la qualité des aliments crus jusqu'au moment de leur consommation. La déshydratation et la fermentation spontanée, deux méthodes majeures de conservation dans les communautés pastorales, offrent un potentiel d'innovation qui peut être largement diffusé parmi ces communautés. La biodiversité exceptionnelle de la microflore présente dans les produits fermentés doit encore faire l'objet d'une caractérisation exhaustive afin d'exploiter le potentiel d'innovation qui lui est associé. Pour qu'un levain naturel constitué de flore bactérienne puisse être élaboré localement en perpétuant, voire en améliorant les caractéristiques souhaitées du produit final, il faut préalablement caractériser ces micro-organismes, évaluer leur innocuité et les conserver. La mise en oeuvre durable de ces innovations requiert une sensibilisation minutieuse des parties prenantes, l'analyse de leur acceptabilité par la société et le renforcement des capacités à tous les niveaux, ce qui contribuera à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et l'innocuité des aliments.

En las comunidades pastorales, que tienen escaso acceso a fuentes alimentarias externas, la conservación de los alimentos contribuye en gran medida a la seguridad y la higiene alimentarias. Para conservar un alimento crudo es posible cocinarlo, secarlo, ahumarlo, encurtirlo, salarlo, curarlo o hacerlo fermentar con microorganismos. Tras describir las técnicas de conservación utilizadas en medios pastorales, prestando especial atención a los componentes básicos del régimen alimentario (esto es, leche, carne y cereales), los autores exponen los riesgos sanitarios conexos y las posibles innovaciones en la materia. Para mejorar la inocuidad de los alimentos y garantizar la seguridad alimentaria es indispensable librarlos duraderamente de microorganismos patógenos, lo que evita la contaminación reiterativa e impide la esporulación y el crecimiento de microorganismos zoonóticos y de transmisión alimentaria, cosa que a su vez reduce el volumen de pérdidas tras la cosecha y el de alimentos echados a perder. Sin embargo, resulta difícil adaptar los modernos procedimientos de conservación a los modos de vida de las sociedades pastorales, lo que hace que rara vez sean implantados o aceptados. Por ello las innovaciones deben ir dirigidas ante todo a mejorar los procedimientos ya existentes y aceptados promoviendo combinaciones sinérgicas para compensar las desventajas de esas técnicas tradicionales y garantizar la calidad de los alimentos crudos hasta el momento en que sean consumidos. El secado y la fermentación espontánea, que son técnicas fundamentales de conservación entre los pastores, ofrecen oportunidades de innovación que las diversas comunidades pastorales pueden compartir. Otro posible yacimiento de innovación reside en la singular biodiversidad de la microflora de los productos fermentados, que en gran parte aún no está caracterizada. La caracterización de estos microorganismos, la evaluación de su inocuidad y su conservación son otros tantos procesos necesarios para obtener cultivos iniciadores adaptados al contexto local que retengan o mejoren las características deseadas del producto final. Para posibilitar una aplicación duradera de tales innovaciones, que contribuirán a lograr mayores cotas de seguridad e higiene alimentarias, es preciso sensibilizar cuidadosamente a los interesados, estudiar la aceptación social de los procedimientos en cuestión e impartir formación a todos los niveles.