Lund University, founded in 1666, has 8 faculties and a multitude of research centres and specialized institutes. It is at present the largest unit for research and higher education in Sweden. The Engineering Faculty (known as the Lund Institute of Technology) hosts the Department for Applied Microbiology, which is a Centre of Excellence for biotechnology and applied microbial genetics. Applied Microbiology at Lund University works on monitoring the staphylococcal enterotoxin expression in the food chain. Factorial Design has been used to study the main and interaction effects of food factors on lag phase duration, growth rate, virulence gene expression, and enterotoxin formation in fermentation and food model systems, which are designed to simulate food and food production methods. Applied Microbiology works wit the development of sampling strategies, so that they become suitable for molecular-based analysis. The team of Applied Microbiology has recently been involved in the EU project “FOOD-PCR” as a WP leader, and is presently WP leader in the EU project “PathogenCombat”. (Peter Rådström, Jenny Schelin)