The changing face of microbial quality control practices in the brewing industry: Introducing mass spectrometry proteomic fingerprinting for microbial identification

摘要

Microbiological quality control testing in breweries is essential for maintaining high product quality and should be performed routinely. The effects of microbial contamination, derived from organisms including bacteria, wild yeast and mould, can range from comparatively minor changes in beer flavour and fermentation performance to gross flavour and aroma defects, turbidity problems and reduced yeast performance. Further implications of batch contamination include significant financial loss and decreased consumer confidence. This review discusses current microbiology testing techniques and their limitations, then focuses on new developments and technologies for routine microbiological control testing. The adoption of new technologies such as proteomic fingerprinting by mass spectrometry would allow breweries to conduct more extensive microbiological analyses that are currently cost- and time-prohibitive, particularly for small breweries. Copyright (c) 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling