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Introduction
Health issues related to food and drinks are highly concerning at global level. As per World Health Organization, 1 out 10 individuals become ill due to consuming contaminated food and approximately 420,000 fatal cases annually due to food poisoning1. Ensuring food and water safety has always been a challenge, and many techniques are developed to ensure food safety. This research focuses on 5 types of bacteria which are widely found in milk and water, these are Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli(also known asE. coli),Listeriamonocytogenes,Staphylococcusaurous,andAcetobacter. Enterobacter aerogenes, E. coliandAcetobacterare gram-negative whereas Listeriamonocytogenes,Staphylococcusaurousare gram-positive in nature.
Literature review revealed that these microorganisms are one of the leading causes of food poisoning in tropical and equatorial countries. A study conducted in India revealed that the presence of Enterobacter aerogenes in food items increases the odds of food poisoning more than twice2. A study in Iraq reported that consumption of E. colicontaminated water has caused five outbreaks and 1000 hospitalizations between 2013 and 20213. The detrimental effects of these bacteria are not limited to liquid items, but also causes mass food poisoning via solid food items. Researchers have reported that in South Africa, adulteration of beef with horsemeat (which has high Listeriamonocytogenescount) leads to serious health consequences and huge economic burden on the public health system4.
A study conducted on ready-to-eat fruits available at street vendors in Nigeria revealed the presence of the antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aurous. This research underscored that this could lead to the broad-spectrum antibiotic resistance development in the consumers5.
Next section briefly discusses plate technique and underscores the recent advancements in pasteurization, with focus on a novel technology called Pulse Electric Field (PEF) to annihilate the microorganisms.
Plate Technique
Traditional Plate Count (TPC) technique is used for quality verification of probiotic goods, which is based on the reproduction of bacterial cells on agar plates. The quantity of bacterial cells that can grow on the culture medium and their identity can be determined via culture-based analysis6. Fluorescent stains, which can detect living, damaged, and dead bacterial cells, are utilised to acquire a better understanding...