Michael Gänzle, a food microbiologist in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, is the new Canada Research Chair in Food Microbiology and Probiotics.
Michael Gänzle studies food fermentations-how they affect the quality and nutritional properties of food, as well as its safety.
"You could call that hamburger science," said Gänzle, "because my research relates to the quality of the bun as well as the safety of the patty."
To satisfy today's consumers, the food industry faces the problem of replacing food additives and antibiotics that have been working extremely well for decades, said Gänzle, a food microbiologist in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science.
"And it's not so easy to replace them."
As the newly appointed Canada Research Chair in Food Microbiology and Probiotics, Gänzle will tackle those challenges by focusing on two core areas.
One area of study involves replacing additives and antibiotics in food production through food fermentation and intestinal lactic acid bacteria. For instance, fermentation with lactic acid bacteria allows salt to be replaced in bread, while still maintaining bread's popular taste and freshness.
Gänzle is also researching the conversion of phenolic acids by lactobacilli. Phenolic acids are found naturally in plants as a defense compound. Gänzle's goal is to understand how fermentation with lactic acid bacteria can increase the availability and activity of these compounds, and then to use the compounds to replace chemical preservatives in ready-to-eat foods without negatively affecting the food's taste.
"The answer to that will lead to applications for food safety," he said. "Subsequently, I plan to extend the area to understand how bacterial metabolism of phenolic compounds impacts human health."
Bacterial metabolites also specifically interfere with the infection of farm animals by intestinal pathogens, an area that Gänzle is currently exploring in collaboration with Ruurd Zijlstra, chair of the department and an expert in swine and carbohydrate nutrition.
During the seven-year term of the Canada Research Chair, Gänzle will continue studying heat-resistant enteric pathogens, including the bacterium Escherichia coli. His team of investigators-including fellow department microbiologist Lynn McMullen-recently discovered the E. coli can survive the universally recommended cooking temperature of 71 °C.
Gänzle wants to understand how a relatively small set of genes can confer this exceptional resistance, and then use the information to eliminate the heat resistant pathogens with alternate methods.
"I think we will get to the point where we can change the processing and cooking recommendations to reduce the chance of contamination," he said.
How to eliminate pathogens from dry foods such as spices, flours, milk powders, is one of Gänzle most recent branches of study.
"These are difficult to decontaminate, because if there is no water present even heat-sensitive organisms become resistant to elimination," he said. He is currently using light and also high-pressure carbon dioxide to understand the mechanisms that affect survival and to develop solutions.
While his projects appear to be quite divergent, they all relate microbial ecology, physiology and metabolism to food safety and food quality.
"I think we can improve food safety and quality with better tools," said Gänzle.