Reducing the risk of Microbial Spoilage in beverages – Using new PCR technology

Supported by:

11 October 2017

About this webinar

Microbial spoilage risk is a major concern for beverage industries as it generates economic losses and can have a major impact on brand image. In this webinar Pall analysed the growing market demands for minimally processed products or mixed beverages and the increasing need for effective controls.

Microbial monitoring is widely implemented and mostly based on traditional culture methods but these do not allow an early contamination warning or rapid batch release and also require further microbial identification steps to assess contamination and planning for further action.

In this webinar, alternative methods were reviewed to overcome these limitations based on real time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which offers sensitive and specific detection of micro-organisms in a matter of hours. This extremely accurate tool can be easily implemented in a routine quality control laboratory.

Keynote speaker

Wayne Miller, Business Development Manager for GeneDisc Food Applications, Pall Corporation

Wayne’s experience includes over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in applications for microbiological testing. He has worked with rapid and automated systems used in pharma and food applications to speed up analysis. During the last 7 years his focus has been on the GeneDisc PCR system and its applications for the rapid testing of food pathogens and spoilers

Peter Kiley Head Brewer, Barrel Program Director, Monday Night Brewing

Peter Kiley lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked as a sommelier and in the wider wine industry for ten years at Rundog Vineyards in California and then Chateau Elan Winery and Resort in Georgia. After looking for a fresh challenge he joined the then fledgling Monday Night Brewing, figuring that if he could make wine then he could make beer. Kiley is one of the leading figures in what he describes as the ‘winification’ of beer.

John Patrick Paluszynski, Research Microbiologist and Lab Manager, Monday Night Brewing

John received his PhD at the University of Muenster, Germany. His research consisted of the molecular actions of yeast killer toxins. In addition, he also researched the mechanism of synergy often exhibited by two commonly applied antifungal agents, 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) and fluconazole (FCZ) and discovered two additional genes that function in 5-FC resistance. Afterwards, he was awarded a Fellowship at Tufts Medical Center (2009-2012) where he developed a mouse model system and a qPCR technique to determine immune response to Cryptosporidium mucin-like glycoproteins.