V. Early Development in Food Microbiology (Prior to 1900 A.D)

It is not known exactly when our ancestors recognized the importance of the invisible creature, now designated as microorganisms, in food. But it had to be around 8000 B.C. in the Near East after they developed agriculture and animal husbandry. They produced more foods than they could consume within the short growing season, and a portion of the produce was lost due to spoilage. They solved the problems and secured uniform food supplies throughout the year by developing different preservation technique. Between 8000 and 2000 B.C., they used drying, cooking, smoking, salting, low temperature, baking, modified atmosphere, fermentation, spices, and honey to extend the storage life of different types of raw and processed foods. Although we are not sure if they had perceptions about the cause of foodborne diseases, they definitely associated food spoilage with some invisible factors and developed successful preventative measure.
From the time of the Greeks until the discovery of biogenesis, spoilage of foods, especially of meat and fish, was thought to be due to spontaneous generation, such as the development of maggots. When the presence of different types of bacteria in many foods was discovered, their appearance through spontaneous generation was explained to be the cause of food spoilage. Schawnn (1837) and Helmholtz (1843) associated the presence of microorganisms (bacteria) in food with both putrefactive and fermentative changes of foods. However, they did not believe in spontaneous generation, but they could not explain how microorganisms could bring about those changes. Finally, Pasteur resolved the mystery by explaining that contamination of foods with microorganisms from environment and their subsequent metabolic activities and growth were the cause of fermentation of grapes, souring of milk, and putrefaction of meat.
Diseases caused by the consumption of certain foods (foodborne disease) was recognized at least during Middle Ages. Ergot poisoning in Europe was related to the consumption of grains (infested with molds) in the 12th century. In 1857, consumption of raw milk was suspected to be cause of typhoid fever. In 1870, Selmi related certain food poisoning with ptomaine (histamine). Gaertner was the forst to isolate Salmonella from a meat implicated in a foodborne diseases in 1888. Denys, in 1894, was able to establish Staphylococcus aureus with food pisioning and, in 1896, Ermengem isolatedClostridium botulinum from food. The association of many other pathogenic bacteria and viruses to foodborne was established after 19900 A.D.
Paseur, in the 1860s, rcognized the role of yeasts in alcohol fermentation. He also sowed that souring of wine was due to growth of acetic acid producing bacteria (Acetobacter aceti), and developed the pasteurization process (heating at 145˚ F for 30 min) to selectively eliminate these undesirable bacteria from wine. Like fermentation, cheese ripening was suggested by Martin in 1867 to be of microbial origin. John Lister, in 1873, was able to isolate milk-suring bacteria (Lactococcus lactis) by the serial dilution (dilution to exctinction) procedure. Cienkowski, in 1878, isolated the bacteria (Leuconostoc mesenteroides) associated with slime formation in sugar (sucrose). In 1895, microbial enumeration of milk was developed by von Geuns. After 1900 A.D., the involvement of different microorganisms in food spoilage and food fermentation was demonstrated.