Scientific expertise:
Extensive experience with foodborne hazards
- Bacterial: Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, Cronobacter sakazakii, Staphylococcus, enterococci, pathogenic Clostridium spp., Bacillus and other sporeformers)
- Fungal associated hazards: particularly Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium spp.
- Mycotoxins
Applied and processing microbiology
- Microbial response to instrinsic and extrinsic processing hurdles, including challenge testing (pathogens and spoilage)
- Validation of traditional and innovative processes: Thermal (pasteurisation, UHT, retort), high pressure (thermal) processing, pulsed electric field, ultrasonics, cool plasma, ultraviolet, hurdle technologies
- Food spoilage investigations (including factory visits) and shelf-life studies
- Persistence in food processing and production environments
- Sanitiser efficacy assessments
- Qualitative risk assessment/profiling, hazard analysis and risk management
- Development of food safety and HACCP plans
- Advice for policy development
Advanced microbial genomics
- Microbial genome sequencing, assembly, annotation
- Functional genomics, transcript analysis, gene cloning, bioinformatics, metagenomics
- Virulence assessment of pathogens
- Foundational genetic knowledge of microbial hazards informing control and mitigation strategies
Microbial physiology and characterisation
- Cell surface, metabolism and stress response characterisation
- Flow cytometric analysis
- Confocal, epifluorescence and light microscopy
Microbial ecology and epidemiology
- Characterisation of hazards in food production and processing environments, biofilms, microbial pathogen genotyping, differentiation of microbial populations, source tracking (identification of contamination sources)
- Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria in animals and food (detection, transfer and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance)
- Bacteriophages (ecology, transmission, influence on virulence)
Knowledge transfer activities
- Industry workshops in food safety and applied food microbiology
- Participation in food safety research forums
- Publishing activities
Key infrastructure:
- Expertise and laboratories in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
- Physical containment level 2 (PC2) laboratories specialising in high risk pathogen research (e.g. pathogenic E. coli, Salmonella, Clostridium, Listeria)
- Department of Agriculture Quarantine Approved laboratories for research associated with and/or using imported foods and ingredients
- Food-grade pilot plant facilities in Brisbane and Melbourne, with access to pilot and commercial-scale high pressure (thermal) processing equipment; ideal for commercial-scale shelf-life testing
- Special containment processing facility in Melbourne for pathogen challenge testing using high pressure (thermal) processing, pulsed electric field, UHT/HTST, and other innovative processing technologies