Psychrotrophs in foods

The emergence of psychotropic foodborne pathogens in recent years has raised new concerns about the safety of refrigerated foods.

Bacteria can be classified as psychrophiles, psychrotrophs, mesophiles and thermophiles according to how temperature influences their growth. Microorganisms that grow in foods at refrigeration temperature (0 to 7 °C) but have temperature optima above 20 °C are called psychographics.

Psychrotrophs are found in nearly all raw foods. The spoilage of refrigerated food including meat, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables is generally due to psychrotrophics growth.

Typically, 65-70% of the psychrotropics isolated from raw milk are Pseudomonas species. Pseudomonas spp. are considered the most important causative agent, and detection and enumeration of these bacteria is useful to established contamination and potential spoilage microbial.

Other important psychotropics associated with raw milk include members of the genera Bacillus, Micrococcus, Aerococcus, and Lactococcus and of the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Much of the supply held in the cold storage which makes psychrotrophs important as potential spoilage organism.
Psychrotrophs in foods