"Emerging technologies for detecting foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms in milk: Ensuring safety and quality"

Abstract

Foodborne and spoilage microorganisms pose significant challenges to both food safety and product integrity, particularly within the dairy industry. These microorganisms can adversely affect milk quality, safety, shelf life, and the overall sustainability of the dairy industry, making their detection a critical concern in food science. This review explores a range of emerging and innovative detection techniques, including molecular, immunological, and sensor-based methods, with a focus on their practical implementation in dairy microbiology. While culture-based methods remain the gold standard, they suffer from several limitations, including being time-consuming, labor-intensive, costly, and less effective at detecting non-culturable microorganisms. Recent advancements in rapid, high-throughput, and high-sensitivity detection technologies have transformed the ability to identify and control both foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms in milk, offering superior accuracy, efficiency, and real-time monitoring capabilities. This review provides a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge microbial detection approaches in milk, highlighting the key characteristics of these emerging methods developed in recent years. Furthermore, global regulatory standards in milk microbiology among eight representative countries were comparatively analyzed to elucidate the current landscape of dairy microbiology regulatory frameworks. Our primary objective is to synthesize current scientific research to offer insights into the effectiveness, practicality, and industry adoption of these emerging detection technologies. We critically examine studies that have contributed to the development of rapid and accurate microbial detection methods, assessing their impact on food safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. By consolidating and analyzing cutting-edge advancements in microbial detection, this review aims to contribute to ongoing efforts to strengthen both food safety and quality assurance in the dairy industry by integrating novel detection technologies into routine monitoring practices. We aim to provide a valuable resource for researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers, facilitating informed decision-making and promoting the adoption of effective microbial detection strategies from dairy farms to consumer products.