Agricultural and Food Biotechnology
Agricultural and Food Biotechnology tests the application of biology to crop improvement, animal production, food fermentation, preservation, and food safety.
Core rules
- Plant breeding combines selection, hybridization, mutation, and marker-assisted selection. Tissue culture supports clonal propagation and recovery of clean stock.
- GM crops require trait design, transformation, selection, regulatory approval, and monitoring. The trait, not the method alone, determines risk.
- Biofertilizers use living microorganisms to improve nutrient supply; biocontrol uses antagonists or predators to suppress pests.
- Food fermentation relies on controlled microbial activity, often lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, or molds. Starter cultures improve consistency and safety.
- HACCP is preventive: identify hazards, set critical control points, monitor limits, and correct deviations.
- Pasteurization reduces pathogens; sterilization eliminates viable organisms; refrigeration slows but does not stop microbial growth.
Worked example
Yogurt is made by inoculating pasteurized milk with Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus at about 42 °C. Fermentation lowers pH to around 4.6, causing casein to coagulate. If the pH remains above 5.0 after the expected time, the cause may be inactive starter, antibiotic residues, or incorrect temperature. The reasoning links microbial metabolism to a measurable food-quality endpoint.
Traps
Do not equate organic with microbiologically safe. Do not treat HACCP as end-product testing. Do not assume all probiotics have the same effect; effects are strain-specific. Do not call pasteurization sterilization. Do not ignore allergy and labeling rules for GM foods.