Abstract
Rapid estimation of microbial population and vitality is important for ensuring product safety and quality in food and fermentation industry. This paper reviews microbial vitality measurements based on mediated bioelectrocatalysis. We have developed an amperometric method for measuring substrate-oxidizing activity of intact microbial cells and have applied to the estimation of vitality of microorganisms. The response of the electrode was related to the microbial oxidation activity, which was related to the vitality of the cells. The method was also applied to evaluate heat or bactericidal stress against microbial cells. The comparison of the present method and conventional colony counting revealed the appearance of injured cells that were active in the present method but not in the colony counting. The method was proved to be a useful tool in the fields of microbiology and food science.
