CUT Researchers and post-graduate students from the Unit for Applied Food Safety and Biotechnology (UAFSB) participated in the 24^th International ICFMH FoodMicro conference that was held in Nantes, France, during September. This conference was hosted by the French Society for Microbiology (SFM) and is considered the umbrella event for all Food Microbiology societies worldwide.  More than 600 delegates from 58 countries attended the event and CUT was represented by post-graduate students Ms Kereng Corbett (MTech) and Mrs Shirleen Theisinger (DTech), both pursuing their degrees in Environmental Health. 

Ms Corbett was the only South African researcher chosen to deliver an oral presentation at the conference. She presented her research entitled “Yeast diversity in a typical fruit juice bottling plant” under the spoilage microorganisms section. Also in attendance were UAFSB researchers Dr Olga de Smidt and Prof. Ryk Lues from Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at CUT. The conference engaged numerous topics including single cell microbiology, dynamics and functions of microbial consortia, spoilage microorganisms and epidemiology of foodborne pathogens along the food chain. The important role that molecular based techniques currently play in the field and the exciting rate at which these methods are evolving were also debated. 

Presenters from France, Germany and Canada discussed bacterial phenotyping (Omni and Biolog), Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass spectrometry, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), quantitative and digital PCR and application of these techniques in the food industry, as well as related research arenas. Many of the mentioned techniques are used in on-going UAFSB projects, showing the Unit’s dedication towards keeping their research applied and current. 

Post-graduate students affiliated with the Unit for Applied Food Safety and –Biotechnology (UAFSB) attended the 24^th International ICFMH FoodMicro conference held in Nantes, France. Mrs Shirleen Theisinger (left) and Ms Kereng Corbett (right) with Prof. Cletus Kurtzman from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Prof. Kurtzman is the founder of gene sequence-based barcoding system for yeast identification, one of the methods employed in their research.