Biopreservation
Challenges in Food Processing &
Preservation
Challenges in processing
•Retaining the nutritional value, flavor, aroma, and
texture of foods
•Presenting them in near natural form with added
conveniences.
Challenges for the food preservation
•Diverse and demanding
•Need to be addressed on several fronts to derive
maximum market benefits
Conventional Preservation Modern Preservation
Techniques Techniques
• Manipulation of the • High Hydrostatic
water activity Pressure (HHP)
• Lowering of pH • Pulsed Electrical Fields
(PEF)
• Heat treatment
• High pressure CO2
• Addition of chemical
preservatives and treatment
• Control of storage • Ultraviolet light and
temperature of foods • Radiation treatments
• Biopreservation
Biopreservation
Biopreservation refers to extended storage life and
enhanced safety of foods using the natural antimicrobial
compounds that are of plant, animal and microbial origin
and have been used in human food for long time, without
any adverse effect on human health
Biopreservation reduces the amounts of chemical
preservatives as well as the intensity of heat treatments,
both of which can otherwise negatively affect the food
quality
Selection of Cultures as Biopreservatives
• Ability to produce antimicrobials in meats
• Limited sensory changes
• limited acid production
• weak protease activity
• limited gas production
• absence of slime production
• Inhibition of food
pathogenic micro-
organisms
• growth control
• prevention of toxin-
formation
Food • reduction of pathogens
Micro-organisms
• final products
„Protective
• pre-stages and/or
Cultures“
• or raw material
• Shelf life
extension based on
targeted inhibition of
specific spoilage micro-
organisms
Protection of food from spoilage
and pathogenic microorganisms by
LAB
Producing organic acids
Hydrogen peroxide
Diacetyl
Antifungal compounds such as fatty
acids or phenullactic acid
Bacteriocins
Weak acids Have More powerful antimicrobial activity at low
pH than at neutral pH
Acetic acid Is strongest inhibitor and has a wide range of
inhibitory activity, inhibiting Yeast, Molds and bacteria
Undissociated molecule is the toxic form of a weak acid
Undissociated form of organic acid diffuses across the
cell membrane
Acid dissociates in the cytoplasm and releases the protons
Leads to acidification and dissipation of pH gradient over the
membrane causing the observed growth inhibition
Another Hypothesis
Accumulation of anion is the cause of growth
inhibition
It reduces the rate of macromolecule synthesis
and affects transport across the cell membrane
What makes them anti-microbial?
• Organic acids
• lactic acid
Anti-microbial metabolites • acetic acid
• propionic acid…
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Carbon dioxide
• Lacto peroxide
• Fatty acids
• Diacetyl
• Acetaldehyde
• Reuterin
• Other compounds of
low molecular mass
• Bacteriocins
Hydrogen Peroxide
Strong oxidising effect on the bacterial cell wall
Can oxidise sulfhydryl groups of cell proteins and
membrane lipids
H2O2 producing reactions scavenge oxygen, thereby creating
anaerobic environment that is unfavourable for some
microorganisms
Antimicrobial activity is enhanced by the presence of
Lactoperoxidase and thioccyanate
SCN- + H2O2 OSCN- +H2O
Diacetyl
Identified By Van Neil et al.(1929) as the aroma and
flavor component in butter
Produced by species and strains of genera Lactobacillus,
Leuconostoc, Pediococcus and Streptococcus
More active against Gram negative bacteria, Yeasts and
molds than against Gram Positive bacteria
Reacts with the arginine binding protein of Gram
negative bacteria, thereby interfering with the utilization of
arginine
Bacteriocin
s
Bacteriocins from Lactic Acid Bacteria
Bacteriocins are the antimicrobial ribosomally
synthesized peptides produced by LAB and other
bacteria.
Such peptides are effective to kill only closely
related microorganisms and very sensitive in nature,
they are inactivated by proteases in the GIT.
The bacteriocins can effectively be used to inhibit
some gram-positive bacteria, spore-forming bacteria,
and foodborne pathogens.
Desirable properties that make
Bacteriocins suitable for food preservation
They are generally recognized as safe substances
They are not active and nontoxic to eukaryotic cells
They become inactivated by digestive proteases, having
little influence on the gut microbiota
They are usually pH and heat-tolerant
They have a relatively broad antimicrobial spectrum
against many food-borne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria
They show a bactericidal mode of action, usually acting on
the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane: no cross resistance
with antibiotics
Their genetic determinants are usually plasmid-encoded,
facilitating genetic
Do not alter Safe and efficacious
acceptance Economical use of nisin for > 40 years
quality of in several countries
food and are
safe for human
consumption
Consumer resistance
to traditional chemical
FACTORS PROMOTING preservatives and
USE concern over
Effective under OF BACTERIOCINS AS the safety of existing
wide pH & BIOPRESERVATIVES food preservatives
temperature range such as sulfites
and nitrites
Activity is not
lost in the Advent of novel
Presence of bacteriocins with
food additives broad spectrum of
and effective Effective in low activity from
in dairy Foods concentrations food grade LAB
during storage
Bacteriocin Based Biopreservation Strategies
Using a purified/semi-purified bacteriocin
preparation as an additive in food
By incorporating an ingredient previously
fermented with a bacteriocin-producing strain
By using a bacteriocin-producing culture to
replace all or part of a starter culture in
fermented foods to produce the bacteriocin in
situ.
• The main functional limitations for the
application of bacteriocins in food
preservation:
• Its relatively narrow inhibiting activity
spectrum and usually active against only one
target microorganism.
• They are generally not active against gram-
negative bacteria.
• The activity of bacteriocin is not stable and loss
occurs when it interacts with food components by
binding with some other food components such as
lipids and proteins or being degraded by
proteolytic enzymes
