In Print: ‘Fundamental Food Microbiology’

Publication title

Fundamental Food Microbiology

Purdue author

Arun Bhunia

Authors

Arun Bhunia

Bibek Ray

Publisher

CRC Press

Publication date

January 21, 2025

About the book (from the publisher)

Food microbiology has seen enormous growth in the last decade, fueled by the global pandemic of COVID-19 and continual routine outbreaks with traditional foodborne pathogens. In addition, climate change and global warming also affect agriculture and food production, in turn shifting microbial ecology. Such changes will affect pathogen behavior, spoilage, and microbial growth, impacting food safety and quality. Health-conscious consumers are also looking for foods with alternative protein sources from plants and insects, such as fermented, antioxidant, and micronutrient-rich superfoods. All three areas of food microbiology — beneficial, spoilage, and pathogenic microbiology — are expanding and progressing incredibly. What was once a simple process of counting colonies has become a sophisticated process of sequencing complete genomes, gene editing, and biotechnology for starter cultures and probiotics improvement and application of sophisticated analytical tools for microbial analysis.

“Fundamental Food Microbiology, Sixth Edition” captures these developments and broadens coverage of foodborne disease mechanisms, spoilage microbes, and microbial inactivation strategies. Written by experts with approximately sixty years of combined experience, the book provides an in-depth understanding of how to reduce microbial food spoilage, improve intervention technologies, and develop effective control methods for different types of foods.

About the Purdue author

Arun Bhunia is a professor of food microbiology and comparative pathobiology (courtesy) at Purdue University. His expertise includes microbial pathogenesis, probiotic bioengineering, and foodborne pathogen detection. Bhunia has served on the USDA National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and is the editor-in-chief of Foods and associate editor for Frontiers in Microbiology, PLoS One, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, and BMC Microbiology.