The unit Microbiology / ZIEL (Head Prof. Scherer) at the Technical University in Munich is an internationally reputed Centre for research food-borne pathogens including Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella enterica and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. The fundamental research concentrates on the molecular ecology and genetics of food borne pathogens. Applied research is performed in close cooperation with the food industry, with a focus on the characterization of the microbial flora in food. The unit Microbiology runs a microbial diagnostics (including food borne pathogens) service for the food industry. As well, the department offers a consulting service for the food production industry in cases of microbiological quality assurance problems. The group "Detection and identification of microorganism" of the unit Microbiology / ZIEL has been engaged in Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR-) based identification of microbes for many years. In course of the research extensive libraries for many groups of microorganism (reference spectra for approx. 800 species are available) with relevance to foodstuff have been generated. Partner TUM will exploit the new variation FTIR-microscopy (Micro-FTIR) which allows the direct qualitative and quantitative analysis of entire populations of microorganism from different steps of food production. Micro-FTIR will be used within the project to analyse microbial community at critical food chain attack point. (Monika Ehling-Schultz)