Lengthen the food shelf life through encapsulated plant-based antibacterials

Antibacterials play an important role in ensuring food safety in the food manufacturing industries. Due to the adverse effects of synthetic antibacterials, attract the attention of food researchers and food manufacturers to find a natural potential replacer of food preservatives. Therefore, there is increasing interest in the use of natural preservatives (rather than synthetic ones) for maintaining the quality and safety of foods due to their perceived environmental and health benefits. It has been observed that some essential oils (EOs) show inhibitory effect on membrane integrity against the tested foodborne pathogenic bacteria. Intracellular material leakage is a general phenomenon result in cell death. However the hydrophobic nature of EOs, thermal instability, possible side effects of the EOs on the sensory attributes, phase separation affect the stability and quality of the food product. In this respect, the encapsulation followed by droplet size reduction cause increasing the physical stability and reduces the mass transfer resistances of the active molecules to the sites of action. Given that among all carriers, emulsification is relatively fast, high efficient technique that has been extensively used in the food industry. It creates higher physical and chemical stability while providing higher frequency of collision with bacteria due to the higher spreadability and consequently more efficient inhibitory activity. Hence, encapsulation via the emulsification of plant-based antibacterials is developing to additionally provides antibacterial activity with the goals of extending the shelf life while ensuring the safety of the food products.

Keywords:

Emulsification , Encapsulation , Food safety , Plant-based antimicrobials , Shelf life