特集「食品安全を支える微生物検査」によせて

抄録

In Japan, the institutionalisation of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) came into full effect in June 2021. Globally, HACCP-based approaches have widely adopted preconditioning programmes (PRPs) as preventive control systems. At present, microbiological testing is often integrated into the preventive control system. In this context, microbiological testing is expected to play an important role in monitoring, validating and verifying the programme. Appropriate microbiological testing is also essential to verify the effectiveness of the HACCP system. In addition, microbiological testing is required to demonstrate compliance with food microbiological standards (e.g. standards, guidelines, specifications). In the EU, microbiological testing is also used to investigate suspected deviations in process control, particularly for hygiene indicator bacteria. In Japan, the introduction of HACCP is expected to lead to a shift towards microbiological testing of process controls in food manufacturing plants. Furthermore, in the food industry, microbiological challenge testing, storage testing and growth modelling are essential tasks in quality design to estimate and test what can happen to food during processing, distribution and subsequent handling. Microbiological testing also plays an essential role as a tool for this work. Thus, with the further development of food safety management, microbiological testing is expected to continue to play an impor tant role in assessing whether food safety objectives are being met. On the other hand, traditional microbiological detection and identification methods for foodborne pathogens are well known to be time-consuming and laborious, and are increasingly recognised as insufficient to meet the demands of rapid food testing. Recently, rapid detection, identification and monitoring methods for various types of foodborne pathogens have been developed, including nucleic acid-based methods, immunological methods, and MALDI-TOF MS-based methods, in addition to conventional culture methods. In view of the growing interest in rapid methods for microbiological testing of foods, the aim of this special issue is to describe the current developments, research needs and future trends in this field.　There is a wide range of rapid methods for food microbiological testing, and it is not possible to cover them all in this special issue. In this article, five experts in the field of microbiological food testing will introduce the rapid techniques that are expected to develop in the future. We also discuss the concept of introducing methods necessary for the introduction of HACCP and the microbiological testing methods suitable for the transition to process control.