Food Science

Slovenian Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (ZIM) is today preserving over 4200 microorganisms which have been systematically collected during the last 30 years mostly from regional foods, beverages and natural habitats. Our R&D activities are mostly focused on isolations and characterizations of yeasts, lactic-acid bacteria and food-borne pathogens. The aim of the collection is distribution of microbial strains to support scientific research work, to use microbial biodiversity for novel biotechnological applications, and to support the teaching process at different levels of education. Most of the strains were identified by state-of-the-art molecular methods and during the last 10 years all the strains have determined their barcoding sequences available also through the on-line catalogue. Comprehensive database of microbial resources is generating information on isolation and geographic location, host and substrate, phenotypic properties and genomic data.

ZIM collection is an infrastructure center of expertise on different classes of microorganisms, advising on problems in the area of microbiology and food technology. It offers various services including identifications, culture characterization and public or safe deposits.