Searching for an approach to the quantitative determination of spores in food systems

The aim of research is to find an approach to control the quantitative germination of microbial spores in food systems. Tasks: to determine the presence of calcium ions in the suspension of germinated spores; to establish the dependence of the concentration of calcium ions on the number of germinated spores. The Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 strain was used as the object of the study. The determination of the biological concentration of Bacillus subtilis in the spore suspension was performed by seeding successive tenfold dilutions of the Bacillus subtilis suspension in sterile distilled water, followed by seeding the suspension and its successive dilutions in Petri dishes with a solid nutrient medium. The suspension was heated at a temperature of 95±1 °C for 20 minutes. After heating, the suspension titer and Ca2+ concentration were determined. Determination of the Ca2+ concentration was carried out by capillary electrophoresis according to the method M 04-52-2008 on the device Kapel-105M (Lumex, Russia). The obtained dependence of the Ca2+ concentration on the titer of microorganisms makes it possible to determine the number of germinated spores even at their minimum content, which makes it possible to quantify germinated spores in food systems by an analytical method. This approach to controlling the quantitative germination of spores showed its applicability for this type of study, since the method of capillary electrophoresis used in the study makes it possible to determine the mass concentration of calcium cations from 1.0 to 500 mg/dm3.