Examining the survival of pathogens in non-alcoholic beers
In this video, Greg Rachon, Section Lead, Brewing Microbiology Research, discusses our research, which explores the risks posed by pathogenic microorganisms in low/no alcohol beers, and examines whether some of their key properties such as pH and bitterness can impact microbial growth.
While traditional alcoholic beers are safe as pathogens are unable to grow in alcohol, the pathogenic risk increases and becomes much more complex once the alcohol is removed. Consequently, we wanted to explore the survival of pathogenic microorganisms in low/no alcohol beers, as we realised that the number of published research papers on this topic was rather limited, at a time when the popularity and consumption of low/no alcohol varieties was increasing and continues to grow.
To help identify just how much of a problem the issue of pathogens and their survival within non-alcoholic beers could be, we screened 50 non-alcoholic beers (both British and other worldwide brands) that are currently available on the UK market.
In this video from Greg Rachon, you will learn more about the steps we took to examine if any microbial pathogens were present, and what findings we uncovered which could help enable safer products to be manufactured in the future - covering areas including:
- Testing for the presence of E. coli, Salmonella, B. cereus and C. botulinum.
- Challenge testing to try and determine what critical limits of pH and bitterness might enable microbial growth.
- Testing to identify what factors can best suppress the growth of microorganisms.
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