The presence of yeasts in food is not unexpected, as they are part of the microbiota of raw materials, employed as starter cultures in numerous fermentation processes, and also play a role in spontaneous fermentation. Nevertheless, they have the potential to induce spoilage, which can lead to significant quality issues, and certain yeasts have the ability to cause infections in humans and animals, posing a food safety risk. The detection of yeasts in food, determination of their cell number, as well as identification and typing, are therefore often tasks during the examination of certain food categories. The methods employed to achieve these objectives are diverse, encompassing both conventional culture-based techniques and more recent, genome-based studies. The objective of this study is to provide a summary article that presents the methods suitable for testing food-derived yeasts. The article will highlight the advantages, disadvantages, and potential difficulties of their applicability. Moreover, a comprehensive review of nucleic acid-based, culture-dependent and culture-independent molecular yeast identification techniques was conducted, encompassing scientific articles from the past five years (2020–2024). The search was based on the Science Direct database using the keywords “yeast and molecular identification and food”.

Pathogenic fungi can cause significant annual losses in the quality and quantity of fruits belonging to Rosaceae family during pre‐ and postharvest. Synthetic fungicides are considered the main method for controlling diseases in food crops; however, they pose a great risk to human health and to the environment. As a result, biological control methods, which are based on living microorganisms to reduce the population or to inhibit the growth of pathogens, have arisen as a safe alternative. In this review, we highlight the principal mechanisms (e.g., nutrition and space competition, mycoparasitism, induced resistance and growth enhancement, production of volatile organic compounds, and antibiosis) utilized by the most frequently reported non‐Saccharomyces biocontrol agents (BCAs) yeasts: Meyerozyma guilliermondii, Pichia membranifaciens, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Hanseniaspora uvarum, and Aureobasidium pullulans, against the common pathogenic fungi found within Rosaceae family: Penicillium expansum, Botrytis cinerea, and Monilinia spp. Understanding BCAs’ importance and mode of action is a necessary step in order to reduce the detrimental effect of spoilage fungi in the agriculture and food industry, by achieving a more sustainable and safer control of them.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) as a major pathogen is implicated in a wide range of foodborne and hospital-acquired infections, its methicillin resistant variants contribute to the spread of β-lactam antibiotics resistance. It is essentially important to destroy these pathogens, their resistant genes and the antibiotics in wastewaters. For this purpose reactions of reactive radicals (advanced oxidation processes), first of all hydroxyl radicals (^•OH), are suggested. Here the radiolysis of water supplied these radicals. In the experiments B.01755 oxacillin sensitive and B.02174 resitant S. aureus strains were used studying their behaviour in suspensions under the effect of irradiation in presence and absence of oxacillin. Oxacillin inactivation depended on concentration of the antibiotic used (0.042 and 1 g dm^-3), higher concentration required a higher dose. When 10⁶-10⁹ CFU cm^-3 S. aureus suspensions were irradiated with γ-radiation the bacteria were inactivated at low absorbed doses: 4 orders of magnitude decrease ocurrred in the number of culturable stains at ∼0.6 kGy dose. Both cell membrane and DNA sufferred considerable damages during irradiation. Due to the membrane damage the cells could not be stained, and the DNA content of cells in several days period was released into the solution. In DNA damage the oxacillin resistant mecA gene was also modified, it did not multiply in PCR test. These findings are important from the point of view of applying irradiation technology to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance.