ARS | Publication request: Combase; a Combined Database on Microbial Responses to Food Environments

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: January 8, 2004
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Abstract only
Citation: Tamplin, M.L., Baranyi, J. 2004. Combase; A Combined Database On Microbial Responses To Food Environments. 67(9):1834-1840.

Technical Abstract: Food microbiology research has generated a large amount of microbiological data on bacterial responses to the environment. Such datasets form the basis of predictive software packages such as the Pathogen Modeling Program in the US and the Food MicroModel in the UK. These programs, however, do not provide access to the raw data (observations) on which the models are based. The ultimate tests to validate the model predictions are to compare the results to the raw data and to study the performance of the models incorporated in the software. It is also important to compare model predictions with independent raw data observed in different laboratories. To accomplish this, a basic technical requirement is to standardize a data-recording format, including the computational platform as well as methodology for collecting the microbiology data. We describe such a database protocol and demonstrate it on a dataset that resulted from a combined effort of the Institute of Food Research and the Food Standards Agency in the UK, and the USDA-ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in the US. At present, the database, ComBase, consists of at least 15,000 records on microbial responses to food-related environments. At its core are the data that form the basis of the Pathogen Modeling Program growth models. The database is also extended with datasets submitted by collaborating institutes and from the scientific literature. ComBase is already functioning in a prototype version and will be publicly available via the Internet in early 1993.