Introduction to the microbiology project: the assignment and a brainstorming session

After the New Year’s holidays, my memory is, of course, completely shot. That’s probably why I’ll never remember what sins I committed to be «rewarded» with a spot on the group project titled, «Ensuring Microbiological Safety in the Food Industry.»
Oh well, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Letting down my high-school classmates isn’t my thing, so I’ll briefly describe the project, its stages, and the semi-final result (it looks like the project will have to be donated to charity—somehow it turned out that in our class, I’m doing three projects while some kids are doing zero).

An important note:

This was the first project I wrote, so when I was selecting sources in the CyberLeninka library, I read literally every single publication that caught my eye. This method is great (plus #1) if you need to get familiar with a topic from scratch, but even then, I’d recommend starting with a good, basic textbook. It doesn’t have to be, and in fact it’s better if it’s not, a university-level one. Find a good textbook for a technical college or even a vocational school.
The downside of this method? It’s a huge time sink. The search itself is time-consuming (there are a zillion-plus articles on Microbiology), as are the selection, sorting, and reading.
The upside of this method (plus #2) is that you can say exactly where any given text or idea was borrowed from. This is crucial when compiling a bibliography.
Later, while writing two other projects on Cryonics (link) and Defoamers (link), I refined my writing system, primarily to speed things up. My methods might not work for everyone reading this, so take what’s written with a grain of salt. If you have your own methods for working on projects, email me about them (link); I’ll definitely read it.

So. Part 1. The assignment and initial ideas

The project is supervised by the Department of Food Industry at Rosbiotech. Different schools work with different universities on projects, but I think we got lucky. Rosbiotech is the former Moscow State University of Food Production—the main and leading educational institution in Russia’s food industry.
The first thing I got from our supervisor was an email with a brief—no, the briefest—description of what they wanted from me.
It looked like this:

Disinfection (including aerosol) of equipment and surfaces at a food industry enterprise (and/or in a home kitchen).
Work stages: Analysis of scientific and technical literature (high-ranking journals, patent research). Materials and methods, including modeling, design, analysis of consumer preferences, raw materials, equipment, etc. Results and their discussion. Analysis of consumer preferences. Technology development. Tasting evaluation. Microscopy of the studied samples and data processing. Testing in production conditions. Based on the work, preparation of a draft article and/or protection of intellectual property rights. Social significance, technical and economic efficiency, and prospects for the project’s development.

They also sent a presentation template, a couple of winning projects from last year, and a small UN brochure on food safety.
Even though it was a group project, we all worked from home, independently (which is actually the norm for group projects). Because of this, I decided not to rely too much on my classmates, but to do as much as I possibly could myself. That way, if needed, I could later compare my work with what they’d done and cut the parts of my version that were simpler or weaker than theirs.

To start, I decided to run a brainstorming session.
The rules are simple: write down everything that comes to mind, drawing on the considerable knowledge one accumulates by 10th grade. Absolutely any idea makes the list—filtering comes later.
Here’s what I came up with:

There are several causes of food poisoning. The most common are pathogenic microorganisms remaining on food. This happens because the same sink might be used to first wash dirty dishes and then produce; consequently, microorganisms transfer from the sink to the food, and a person can get food poisoning after eating such products.
An equally significant cause is insufficient time spent washing raw food materials.
Other causes of food poisoning can include violations of food storage conditions before and after preparation. Also, dirty water used for irrigating fields can negatively affect the safety of consuming the produce.
Using excessive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides also negatively affects the safety of consuming such crops.
Using affected crops to feed livestock leads to the contamination of the animal’s meat.
There are also poisonous herbs for animals, for example, horses (privet, foxglove, and others).
It should also be noted that some genetic modifications of food products can be dangerous and harmful to humans as well, so one should not overuse the modification of plant genomes.
In addition to problems arising during sowing, growing, harvesting, and primary processing, factors at the production facility also impact food safety. These include, for example, the quality of water used in production; poor water quality can seriously affect the final product.
Moreover, the use of chemical dyes, preservatives, and other additives, for instance, E-number additives, can be a direct cause of food poisoning. Some E-additives, after many years of consumption, are recognized as dangerous and even carcinogenic.
Another cause of food poisoning can be unsanitary conditions at the production facility. For example, harmful rodents such as rats and mice can be carriers of harmful microorganisms dangerous to humans. Or fish and meat that haven’t undergone sufficient heat treatment may retain parasites characteristic of these animals.
Non-compliance with sanitary rules can lead to diseases of the respiratory tract, intestines, circulatory system, and skin.
Persons involved in product distribution can also affect the final state of food raw materials and finished products. This may be due to a failure to maintain the proper temperature regime or storage conditions during transportation, consequently, products may spoil before the stated expiration date.
Moreover, causes of food poisoning can include food service workers who don’t wash their hands when preparing products or wash meat and fish in the same sinks as vegetables and fruits.
And of course, people can be sick (hiding it and coming to work, as well as being unaware of their diseases).
Ensuring safety during storage and transportation—for example, one can mention the ripening of bananas in controlled gas environments inside banana carriers.
Modern fertilizers as factors of agricultural product contamination. The herbicide Roundup from Monsanto, which causes cancer, is also worth mentioning.
GMO technologies that change the natural types of plant reproduction. It’s worth noting that by modifying plants, humans will never know how they would have actually developed. For example, almost all soy products on the market now are GMO.
This possibly affects which bacteria now dominate our gut microbiome, and how the digestion and absorption of products proceed.
This could be examined using the example of food preparation rules in fast-food enterprises, as well as the training program for epidemiologists.

I looked at this list and realized I was straying pretty far from the assigned topic.

But still, I decided not to stop and continued.

Ensuring Microbiological Safety in the Food Industry.
Group Project.
1. Introduction to the microbiology project: the assignment and a brainstorming session→
2. An epigraph, a project outline, and Cyberleninka as a source of information→
3. Relevance, introduction, and personal takeaways from the Microbiological safety project→

Other articles about my school projects →
This article in Russian →