'The authors keep themselves in the real world with regular references to the practical aspects of their subject and most of the commercially available kits are referred to. In some instances this is not done in glowing terms and shortfalls in some kits are identified, which in this day and age is something to be valued in a book of the type.' International Food Hygiene '...of great value to anyone wishing to gain updates into specific areas of rapid microbiological methods. The chapters are well researched and written and provide excellent reviews of their respective areas.' Society for General Microbiology 'This book is recommended...' Acta Alimentaria

• 1 History of and prospects for rapid and instrumental methodology for the microbiological examination of foods.- 2 Development and evaluation of membrane filtration techniques in microbial analysis.- 3 Evaluation of commercial kits and instruments for the detection of foodborne bacterial pathogens and toxins.- 4 Microbiological applications of immunomagnetic techniques.- 5 Automated electrical techniques in microbiological analysis.- 6 Modern methods for the detection of viruses in foods.- 7 Luminescent techniques for microbiological analysis of foods.- 8 Modern methods for detecting and enumerating foodborne fungi.- 9 Scope for rapid microbiological methods in modern food production.- 10 Detection and identification of foodborne microbial pathogens by the polymerase chain reaction: food safety applications.