Gary Lum wrote:
>
> I'm being asked to consider establishing a food microbiology laboratory
> for the Northern Territory. The NT is about 1 346 000 square kilometres
> and has only about 170 000. If anyone has any useful advice on how a
> clinical microbiologist with no formal training in food microbiology
> should start please contact me.
>Gary,
As a microbiologist, I did something similar in QLD many, many moons
ago. First, you have to consider what you will be testing. If testing
to see if foods meets the Food Standards Code, you should be using
Australian Standards methods AS 1766. If testing food from food
poisoning outbreaks, other methods can be quicker. You MUST establish
a good working relationship the environmental health officers and don't
tie the food microbiologist to the lab. He/she should be encouraged to
visit food factories, sites of outbreaks etc in order to solve
problems. Lab results don't reveal all.
Send your food microbiologist to visit State Health labs in Qld, NSW etc
and encourage them to attend appropriate conferences. The 9th
Australian Food Microbiology Conference is being held in Sydney, 20-23
July, 1997
These are just a few thoughts off the top of my head.
You can contact me directly if you wish.
Bob Wallace
bw at burger.uqg.uq.oz.au
