Transition to the reference standard UNE-EN ISO 6579-1: 2017.

Motivation: Nowadays the determination of the food quality is an indispensable requirement at global level. This work focus on how the presence of microorganisms in food can be detected and verify that they ensure the minimum requirements stablished by the law. To acomplish that, government entities like ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación y Certificados) promulgate standards developed by the ISO (International Organization for Standarization).One of the most important microorganism related with foodborne diseases is Salmonella. This work aims to adapt the laboratory protocol for the detection of the former microorganism to the new standards.Methods:According to the RD 2073/2005, laboratories must adapt the research assay UNE-EN ISO 6579:2003 ,which was modified in 2017, to accomplish the reference standard for the detection of Salmonella. Those changes are not significant, as result it is not necessary to make a complete validation of our protocol; that will make the transition to the new method much easier.The schedule for this transition will be: (1) Find out the changes between the older and newer standard method, such as culture mediums, incubate periods, and changes at bioquimical and serological tests. (2) Define the confirmation test. (3) Conducting verification tests of the method in parallel with the procedure based on the old standard. (4) Perform an evaluation based on the results of the test. (5) Modification of the internal test procedure.Results and conclusion: Even though a validation has not been carried out, the analysis of a wide variety of foods for the detection of Salmonella has been performed throughout the internship. These verification tests have been carried out according to the old ISO using reference strains such as S. thyphimurium (ATCC 14028) and S. enteritidis (ATCC 13076). The procedure consists of inoculating a food sample with the target sample at a concentration of the microorganism close to the limit of detection obtained by the laboratory in its validation, being this limit below 10 CFU / 25g. Currently the laboratory is in phase no. 1. Our expectation is adapt the procedure to the new ISO before the end of the course

Quality assurance in a microbiology laboratory

Motivation: Quality control companies are becoming increasingly important in different aspects of biotechnology. According to UNE-EN-ISO 17025: 2017, Innoagral is an accredited laboratory, which is devoted to agri-food, water and cosmetic analysis among others. In order to meet the different quality parameters established, one of the main purposes of this laboratory is to ensure the quality of the results emitted. To do so, a series of activities encompassed in the quality assurance of its tests have been defined, among which are: monthly verifications of the testing methods, manipulation and preparation controls of strains and growth mediums, as well as environment and surface controls and assay blanks. Depending on the type of activity, appropriate intervals are established for each analysis.Methods: The presence investigation of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in foods and surfaces is carried out by chromogenic methods which are based on the UNE-EN-ISO 6579-1: 2017 and UNE-EN-ISO 11290-1: 2018. As they are qualitative microorganism detection methods, the samples are subjected to a preincubation stage prior to the spreading in specific media. Both control strains and growth mediums are subjected to their own quality controls to be used in the verification of different methods; all of them based on UNE- EN ISO 11133:2014.Results: Based on the accuracy and precision criteria which are clearly-defined in the laboratory, the validity of the methods is checked, and a limit of detection of 15 ufc/portion, which has to be fulfilled in each of the verifications of the Salmonela spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, is established

Quality control in agrifood and sanitary industry

Motivation: One of the main areas of Biotechnology are the quality control dedicated companies at different levels, such as the agrifood, cosmetic, public health and water analysis. Innoagral is one of this companies, which works according to UNE-EN-ISO 17025: 2005. The goal of the analysis carried out here is the continuous improvement of the product as well as the fulfillment of specifications to keep the quality parameters established for the different matrices.Methods: Samples provided by different companies are evaluated by physical-chemical and/or microbiological methods, which follows the protocols established by Norms UNE-EN-ISO. The main physical-chemical techniques developed are the measurement of pH, conductivity, biologycal oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), sugar content by refractometry, total protein extraction (Kjeldahl), saturated fats content and alkalinity by volumetry, total fat content extraction (Soxhlet), humidity and ash by gravimetry and quantity of cations and other compounds measurement by spectrophotometry, alwais under the UNE-EN-ISO norms. The microbiological techniques include the detection and counting of Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Legionella spp and Salmonella spp, among other microorganisms. For this, the culture media, sterility sample preparation, enrichment , culture, biochemical confirmation and serological tests are always developed subject to the Norms UNE-EN-ISO.Results: After many analyses the main results obtained indicated that most of the samples of drinking water satisfy the established pH ranges (RD 140/2003) and conductivity ranges (UNE-EN 27888:1994). In the case of wastewater, it usually has a higher content in COD than in BOD. The analysis of soils reveals big differences in the heavy metals proportion depending on the origin and composition of the soil, in which the amount of organic matter directly affects phosphorus levels. At the microbiological level, food analyzed follows the Regulations (CE) 1169/2011 and 2073/2005 that dictate, respectively, the standards of food labeling (with the nutrients proportion obtained in the physico-chemical tests) and the microbiological criteria, mainly for Salmonella (UNE-EN-ISO 6579-1: 2017), L. monocytogenes (UNE-EN-ISO 11290: 2018) and E.coli (UN-EN-ISO 16649: 2015).For those samples that don't reach the minimum quality parameters, the companies must set up the necessary changes to comply with the established standards