Elements and Performance Criteria
- Identify food poisoning and spoilage bacteria, including methods of control
- Identify the major bacteria responsible for food poisoning and spoilage
- Evaluate the types of processes used in the control of microbial growth in food products
- Determine the effect of a standard food preserving technique over a range of pH on the growth patterns of microbes
- Evaluate the effectiveness of this food preserving technique in controlling food poisoning and spoilage microbes
- Assess the usefulness of this technique as part of process control of food poisoning and spoilage microbes
- Assess compliance with Food Standards Code for food preservation techniques
- Perform microbiological techniques for the identification of food-borne disease
- Use standard microbiological techniques to identify and enumerate food poisoning and spoilage organisms from a food sample
- Identify the type of toxins produced by the major food pathogens
- Investigate documented food-borne disease outbreaks from the past
- Determine the ramifications of product contamination in terms of public health and product shelf-life quality
- Handle specimens and waste to comply with health and safety in the workplace guidelines
- Apply the principles of microbiological quality control
- Determine the spoilage patterns of specific foods at different temperatures of storage
- Determine the relationship between spoilage patterns and the growth cycle of the specific food spoilage and poisoning organisms
- Design, implement and evaluate a microbiological quality control program for a specific food in terms of the Food Standards Code
- Determine the importance of plant hygiene and how it can affect the finished product
- Apply rapid microbiological techniques and other relevant technology for the identification of microbes related to plant hygiene
- Perform techniques involving microbial fermentations
- Identify the types and characteristics of microorganisms used for fermentation within the food industry
- Use standard microbiological techniques to isolate and identify yeasts and bacteria in given food samples
- Perform sub-culturing and pure culture techniques for 'scale up' to 'starter' cultures
- Maintain new culture strains after fermentation using standard techniques
- Analyse test results and provide recommendations to process controllers or production managers
- Record and collate results of microbiological tests
- Analyse microbiological data and compare with food safety and food processing critical control limits and other parameters
- Establish implications of test results and draw conclusions
- Document test results, conclusions and recommendation, and present to food processing management