Modeling Microbial Responses: Application to Food Spoilage

Roughly, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. For instance, in the European Union, over 100 million tons of food are wasted annually. Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production down to final household consumption. One of the causes of food waste is spoilage, leading to food deterioration up to the point in which the food can be no longer consumed. This overall loss of quality could be due to various reasons, which could be sorted into two types: either a change in physico-chemical properties (e.g. textural evolution and production of off-flavor by lipid degradation) or a microbial growth.