Campden BRI has appointed Rob Limburn to lead the company’s work on the effects of heat and disinfectants on microorganisms and their inactivation. This includes microbiological validation of cooking processes designed to inactivate key pathogens or spoilage organisms. Campden BRI offers an international on-site cooking and process validation for establishing microbial inactivation and death kinetics, as well as a UKAS accredited service for disinfectant testing. Additionally, Limburn will represent Campden BRI on international standard writing committees for the microbiological validation of thermal and other processes.

Limburn has worked in Campden BRI’s microbiology heat resistance and decontamination group since 2012 and brings almost 20 years’ microbiology experience to his new role. He has conducted many bespoke research projects, on behalf of both member and non-member companies, looking at disinfection and decontamination, heat resistance, microbiological process validation, microbial inactivation and the use of surrogate organisms in microbiological challenge testing. He has also helped to develop genetic and molecular microbiology methods at Campden BRI.

Earlier this year Campden BRI opened a new suite of laboratories to support its microbiology process hall facilities. The suite contains a large open–plan laboratory dedicated to studies on heat resistance microbiology, challenge testing, heat process optimisation and validation investigations for the development of new products, processes and technologies.