Björkroth team is recognised in research on microbial ecology of food spoilage. We increase understanding of the succession and function of individual spoilers as a part of a microbiome and how a spoilage microbiome develops over time. We study the most preferred active pathways used by microbes during growth and how these activities are translated to their fitness and production of spoilage metabolites.
The most important spoilage organisms in packaged cold-stored foods are psychrotrophic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and to some extent Enterobacteriales. Leuconostoc gasicomitatum, Leuconostoc gelidum, Lactococcus para-/carnosus, some psychrotrophic lactobacilli and carnobacteria cause problems in the modern packaged foods in Europe. We have described several of these LAB spoilers in our research. The greater aim of our work is to enable development of novel and rapid technologies for the evaluation of food freshness and to find ways to restrict the growth of these spoilers by understanding what drives their succession in food.