Chapter 2: Micro-organisms and Food Materials

Micro-organisms can be found throughout the biosphere, in a very diverse range of habitats, and many have evolved properties that enable them to survive in what can seem quite hostile conditions. The ubiquity of micro-organisms, in the atmosphere, soil and water, means that food materials are never sterile but contain a microflora derived from their environment – on plant surfaces, on the skin of animals, in their gut and elsewhere – which comprises a relatively persistent microbiome plus occasional, adventitious, more transient contaminants.