Programa

Contaminantes e Patogénios Alimentares

Mestrado Bolonha em Engenharia Alimentar

Programa

1. Public health and food poisoning 1.1. The concept of “One Health” 1.2. The Global Burden of Diseases: epidemiology and metrics 1.2.1 The relevance of foodborne diseases (WHO data) 1.2.2 The limitations of statistical data 1.2.3 The improvement of surveillance methods 1.3 The utilisation of meta-analysis in food pathogen prevalence 2. The global spread of foodborne toxinfections 2.1 Risk factors: microbial severity, host susceptibility, food origin and preparation 2.2 Emergent and zoonotic pathogens 2.3 The issue of trade globalization and food habits 2.4 The emergent antimicrobial resistance transmission 2.5 The changing nature of food hazards 2.6 Case studies of major industrial food recalls 3. Institutional prevention of foodborne diseases 3.1 Historical background of safety regulations 3.2 Food scares 3.3 The concept of Food Integrity 3.4 Food Assurance systems (HACCP, TACCP, VACCP) 3.5. Modern Assurance prevention strategies 3.5.1 Intelligent Food Assurance systems 3.5.2 Modern fields of technology and regulation 4. Monitoring of microbial populations in foods and beverages 4.1 Conventional methods of quality and safety evaluation 4.1.1 Statistical sampling plans (ICMSF principles) 4.1.2 Microbiological criteria 4.1.3. Injury recovery and viable but non-culturable (VBNC) states 4.2 Rapid and molecular monitoring methods 4.2.1 Immunological, nucleic acid and next generation approaches 4.2.2 Biosensor based methods 4.2.3 Automated methods (flow cytometry, electronic noses, impedance microbiology) 4.2 Sources of contamination 4.2.1 Oral-fecal routes 4.2.2 Biofilm formation 4.2.3 Source tracking 5. Industrial control of microbial contaminations 5.1 Contamination prevention 5.1.1 Prerequisite programs (PRPs) 5.1.2 Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) 5.1.3 Hygienic design guidelines (EHEDG) 5.2 Spoilage prevention of foods and beverages 5.2.1 Factors affecting microbial growth and death 5.2.2 Novel antimicrobial agents 5.3 Mathematical modeling of microbial growth and inactivation 5.3.1 Predictive microbiology and primary/secondary kinetic models. 5.3.2 Inactivation kinetics (Log-reduction and microbial inactivation concepts) 5.3.3 Thermal and non-thermal processes 5.3.4 Tertiary models, software tools (ComBase), and microbial risk assessment (QMRA) 5.4. Digitalization 5.4.1 Digital twins and AI integration for shelf-life prediction and safety monitoring.