New coatings to apply to soft cheese have been developed by researchers. These coatings are totally edible and have an antimicrobial capacity, which increases the lifespan of the cheese. These films incorporate oregano and rosemary essential oils as antimicrobial agents, and chitosan, a by-product that comes from crustacean shells.
Antimicrobial agents incorporated into edible films applied to foods to seal in flavor, freshness and color can improve the microbiological safety of meats.
Using films made of pullulan — an edible, mostly tasteless, transparent polymer produced by the fungus Aureobasidium pulluns — researchers evaluated the effectiveness of films containing essential oils derived from rosemary, oregano and nanoparticles against foodborne pathogens associated with meat and poultry.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged antimicrobial agents, edible films, microbiological safety
UV and hydrogen peroxide combo most effective listeria reducing treatment, claims study. A combination of ultraviolet-light (UV) and hydrogen peroxide (HP) is the best treatment to reduce listeria during brining, according to a study.
Postprocessing contamination of the products in a processing plant has been identified as one of the major reasons for food contamination with Listeria; brining is one such postprocessing area. Our previous study has shown that the combinations of UV and antimicrobials reduces the number of this organism significantly in fresh brine, but brine is usually recycled from days to weeks depending on its use. Therefore, this study is focused on the reduction of L. monocytogenes in recycled chill brine (obtained from a frankfurter processor) using the combinations of UV and antimicrobial agents, such as citric acid (CA), hydrogen peroxide (HP) and dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC). Results show that the combinations of UV and 2000 ppm and 4000 ppm HP were the most effective treatments in reducing the Listeria population with the total processing time of 120 min. Both of these treatments were found to be more effective than UV or HP alone. Additionally, all other treatments, such as the combinations of UV and CA (0.2 and 0.5%) and UV and DMDC (250 and 500 ppm) were comparatively less effective. This may be due to the presence of organic matter in spent brine, which may have reduced the penetration of UV and availability of antimicrobials for microbial interaction.
Posted in Food Technology, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen
Tagged antimicrobial agents
FoodWorld 