Preservation and fermentation: past, present and future

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Abstract

Preservation of food and beverages resulting from fermentation has been an effective form of extending the shelf-life of foods for millennia. Traditionally, foods were preserved through naturally occurring fermentations, however, modern large scale production generally now exploits the use of defined strain starter systems to ensure consistency and quality in the final product. This review will mainly focus on the use of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for food improvement, given their extensive application in a wide range of fermented foods. These microorganisms can produce a wide variety of antagonistic primary and secondary metabolites including organic acids, diacetyl, CO2 and even antibiotics such as reuterocyclin produced by Lactobacillus reuteri. In addition, members of the group can also produce a wide range of bacteriocins, some of which have activity against food pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum. Indeed, the bacteriocin nisin has been used as an effective biopreservative in some dairy products for decades, while a number of more recently discovered bacteriocins, such as lacticin 3147, demonstrate increasing potential in a number of food applications. Both of these lactococcal bacteriocins belong to the lantibiotic family of posttranslationally modified bacteriocins that contain lanthionine, β-methyllanthionine and dehydrated amino acids. The exploitation of such naturally produced antagonists holds tremendous potential for extension of shelf-life and improvement of safety of a variety of foods.

Section snippets

Historical perspective

Modern food processing is dependent on a range of preservative technologies to ensure that food is maintained at an acceptable level of quality from the time of manufacture through to the time of consumption. One of the oldest of these technologies is fermentation, a process dependent on the biological activity of microorganisms for production of a range of metabolites which can suppress the growth and survival of undesirable microflora in foodstuffs. Fermentation as a food preservation

Food fermentation by LAB

As stated above, food fermentations have been practiced for millennia with the result that there is a tremendous variety of fermented foods ranging from those derived from meat and plants to those derived from milk and dairy products. In each case, the fermentation process involves the oxidation of carbohydrates to generate a range of products which are principally organic acids, alcohol and carbon dioxide (Ray and Daeschel, 1992). Such products have a preservative effect through limiting the

Antimicrobial compounds produced by LAB

The preservative action of starter strains in food and beverage systems is attributed to the combined action of a range of antimicrobial metabolites produced during the fermentation process De Vuyst and Vandamme, 1994a, Caplice and Fitzgerald, 1999. These include many organic acids such as lactic, acetic and propionic acids produced as end products which provide an acidic environment unfavourable for the growth of many pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. Acids are generally thought to exert

Bacteriocins produced by LAB

It has been known for some time that many members of the LAB produce proteinaceous inhibitors referred to collectively as bacteriocins. These inhibitors generally act through depolarization of the target cell membrane or through inhibition of cell wall synthesis (Abee et al., 1995), and range in specificity from a narrow spectrum of activity (lactococcins which only inhibit lactococci) to those which have a broad range of activity such as the lantibiotic nisin De Vuyst and Vandamme, 1994b, Jack

Nisin—structure, function and genetics

Nisin is undoubtedly the most well known and characterized bacteriocin and the only one to have realized widespread commercial use. This bacteriocin has consequently been the subject of a wide variety of fundamental studies as to its structure and genetics, and the reader is directed to a number of review articles and references therein De Vuyst and Vandamme, 1994b, Dutton et al., 2002. Nisin is composed of 34 amino acids and has a pentacyclic structure Gross and Morell, 1971, Shiba et al., 1991

Lacticin 3147—structure, function and genetics

Although the bacteriocin lacticin 3147 is not commercially exploited at present, its many potential applications make it a suitable example to select, from the many recently discovered bacteriocins, for inclusion in this review. Lacticin 3147 is a broad spectrum bacteriocin produced by a Lactococcus lactis strain that was originally isolated from an Irish kefir grain (Ryan et al., 1996). This bacteriocin has been the main focus of our research for the last 7 years from both fundamental science

Applications of bacteriocins as biopreservatives

There is a significant dilemma at present in modern food processing in that there is an expectation for long shelf-life and safety of foods and beverages, at a time when consumer preferences are veering towards foods which are minimally processed and free from chemical preservatives (due to safety concerns). Consequently, there has been renewed interest in so-called “green technologies” including novel approaches for minimal processing and the exploitation of microbial metabolites such as

Nisin as a biopreservative

Since nisin is produced by a lactococcal culture, one of the principal applications of nisin-producing strains is in the manufacture of cheese, where it has been investigated for the inhibition of both spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. From a food safety point of view, the pathogen of primary concern in a number of cheeses is L. monocytogenes, which is capable of growing at refrigeration temperatures (Farber and Peterkin, 1991) and has the ability to survive the acidic conditions of

Lacticin 3147 as a biopreservative

Lacticin 3147 has also been shown to be an effective biopreservative in many food applications (Ross et al., 1999). An important advantage of lacticin 3147 is that many transconjugants have been generated which produce the bacteriocin. Importantly, the performance of these strains in food fermentations is not compromised by the presence of the plasmid. When used for production of Cheddar cheese, use of these starters is associated with reduced (at least 100-fold) numbers of nonstarter lactic

Future prospects

In conclusion, we are now entering the post-genomic age of microbiology at a time when many microorganisms used for food production have already been sequenced. This offers a new knowledge-based approach to the exploitation of bacteria for food production, from metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce antimicrobials or nutritionals, to the molecular mining of activities as yet unknown but which could benefit food production. In addition, the availability of the genomes of many food

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