Phage-based Food Preservation Solution

Phages can be used to prevent and suppress microbial colonies to control livestock diseases and decontaminate meat products and other foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Aprofood deeply explores the interaction between bacteriophages and food spoilage microorganisms, and is committed to providing phage-based food preservation solutions for global customers.

Overview of Phage

Interest in the use of bacteriophages as antimicrobials is making a global comeback due to the rise in antibiotic resistance. And bacteriophage applications are no longer limited to the clinic and are now being proposed as a viable option against harmful bacteria in different fields, including veterinary medicine and the food industry.

The antimicrobial activity of phages is a consequence of their parasitic lifestyle, in particular, their development by the lytic cycle. During the first steps of this process, the virus takes over the host cell and uses its machinery to make copies of itself. Then, towards the end of the cycle, the newly formed viral particles are released due to lysis of the infected cell thanks to the activity of phage-encoded proteins with muranolytic activity, the so-called endolysins. This ability turns these simple entities, consisting only of a few proteins and a small genome, into very effective "bacterial killers".

Fig. 1 Antibacterial effects of bacteriophage combined with bacteriocin. (Rendueles, et al., 2022)

Phage in Food Preservation

Studies have shown that the use of bacteriophages to inactivate pathogens for food preservation is successful. For example, the use of bacteriophages to inactivate C. jejuni from chicken skins was 95-99% successful; adding bacteriophages to infected melons and soft cheeses reduced Listeria monocytogenes. The US Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved the use of List-Shield^TM, the LMP-102 phage preparation made from six purified phages to be used on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products as an antimicrobial agent against L. monocytogenes.

Our Solutions

Aprofood deeply explore the mechanism of action of bacteriophage, and focus on its application value in the field of food preservation, and are committed to providing global customers with comprehensive food preservation solutions based on phage.

• Formula Customization
  We are committed to innovation in formulations and have the ability to develop a wide range of phage cocktail formulations for our global customers. From common spoilage microorganisms to unique spoilage microorganisms for a single product, our formulations can be customized. In addition, a variety of technologies (nanotechnology, biofilm technology, etc.) can be applied, and mixed with other ingredients such as bacteriocin to achieve the ideal fresh-keeping and antibacterial effect.
• Comprehensive Evaluation
  We provide a series of comprehensive evaluation solutions for bacteriophages in food preservation applications, including: constructing a variety of food evaluation models to evaluate the interaction between bacteriophages and food matrices, the impact on food shelf life, and sterilization effects; establishing a systematic method for evaluation the interaction relationship between different bacteriophages, whether phage-related derivatives are harmful to food, etc.

Advantages of Phage

Naturally present in food

Auto-replicating

Abundant, diverse, well adapted

Safe for humans and environment

Aprofood is committed to providing extensive support to global customers in food preservation related research. Our professionals can provide you with comprehensive food preservation solutions based on phage. Please contact us for more possibilities of your project!

References

1. Rendueles, C., Duarte, A. C., Escobedo, S., Fernández, L., Rodríguez, A., García, P., & Martínez, B. (2022). Combined use of bacteriocins and bacteriophages as food biopreservatives. A review. International journal of food microbiology, 368, 109611.
2. Tiwari, B. K., Valdramidis, V. P., O'Donnell, C. P., Muthukumarappan, K., Bourke, P., & Cullen, P. J. (2009). Application of natural antimicrobials for food preservation. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 57(14), 5987–6000.