Microbe-based Food Preservation Solutions
Antagonistic microorganisms and their metabolic production have great development potential in inhibiting food spoilage microorganisms and producing unique food flavors. Aprofood deeply explores the field of microorganisms and is committed to providing comprehensive microbe-based food preservation solutions to customers around the world.
Application of Microorganisms in Food Preservation
Food spoilage is a global problem associated with affecting food supply, nutrition and affecting human health. Several species of spoilage microorganisms in food can even cause food poisoning. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 600 million people contract foodborne illnesses and 420,000 die each year. Most contributors are pathogenic Vibrio, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum, and Histamines, among others. However, the use of some chemically synthesized preservatives may induce the resistance of spoilage microorganisms, and there are certain safety hazards.
Fig. 1 Typical types of spoilage bacteria and typical compounds found during fish spoilage. (Rathod, et al., 2022)
Consumer trends have turned to foods preserved using natural compounds alone or in combination with other new processing methods to inactivate foodborne spoilage and disease-causing microorganisms. Biopreservation is an emerging field that uses natural or artificially controlled microbial flora and/or the antimicrobial substances they produce to extend the shelf life and improve food safety of foods, with applications throughout the food industry. Such food preservation methods include:
- Add strains that reproduce faster and/or produce antimicrobial substances.
- Add purified antibacterial substances.
- Fermentation broth with beneficial bacteria.
- Add beneficial bacteria to control external conditions such as temperature and pH, etc.
Our Solutions
Antagonistic microorganisms are widely used for food preservation by competing with food spoilage microorganisms for nutrients and living space and secreting relevant antibacterial substances without harming food. Aprofood provides global customers with food preservation solutions based on receiving antimicrobial agents and their related antimicrobial metabolites.
Lactic Acid Bacteria-based Food Preservation Solution
The most widely used antagonistic microorganisms in food systems are lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which can be used as protective cultures and compete favorably with spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms for the production of nutrient and metabolite compounds with antimicrobial properties. At present, it is mainly used for the preservation and quality improvement of wine, fruit juice, dairy products and fermented food.
Microbial Metabolites-based Food Preservation Solution
Metabolites that can control bacterial and fungal infections are classified as antimicrobial metabolites, which are produced and accumulated by a variety of bacteria and fungi, actinomycetes. These metabolites, such as organic acids, phenyllactic acid, fatty acids, bacteriocins, endolysins, etc., are being developed for food preservation because of their efficient antibacterial properties and no harm to food, and can improve food quality to a certain extent.
Yeast-based Food Preservation Solution
Yeasts are a large group of microorganisms characterized by their ability to survive under different conditions. Nutrient competition is believed to be the main mode of action of yeasts to inhibit spoilage microorganisms by rapidly consuming glucose, fructose or sucrose, preventing the growth of harmful microorganisms. This action of yeast has been used for food and beverage fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Phage-based Food Preservation Solution
The use of phages in food is successful, and their antimicrobial activity is due to their parasitization on bacterial hosts, by taking over the host cell and using its machinery to replicate itself using the nutrients in the host cell. Then at the end of the replication cycle, the infected cells are lysed by a phage-encoded protein with wall-breaking activity and the newly formed phage is released.
Aprofood is committed to providing extensive support for research related to food preservation to customers around the world. We focus on developing food preservation solutions based on antagonistic microorganisms and their metabolites. Contact us to learn more about our microbe-based food preservative solutions!
References
- Rathod, N. B., Nirmal, N. P., Pagarkar, A., Özogul, F., & Rocha, J. M. (2022). Antimicrobial Impacts of Microbial Metabolites on the Preservation of Fish and Fishery Products: A Review with Current Knowledge. Microorganisms, 10(4), 773.
- Tingting Y, Peijun W, Linlin G, L. Gao, Congcong W, Tonghe Z, Sisi L, & Ruqiang H. (2022). Isolation and characterization of a new strain of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and its effect on strawberry preservation. LWT- Food Science and Technology, 165, 113712.
For Research Use Only!
