Novel Advancements in Food Bioactive Compounds for Controlling Foodborne Pathogens

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 515

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Thessaly, Karditsa, Greece
Interests: food microbiology and biotechnology; industrial microbiology and fermentation technology; food preservation; natural antimicrobials and antioxidants; probiotics and prebiotics; beneficial microorganisms; medicinal and bioactive fungi
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, there has been a shift in the food preservation process, from synthetic preservatives and intense thermal processing, which may compromise health and nutritional properties of food, to more natural practices of preservation using milder processes and natural antimicrobial components, which could prevent the growth or survival of foodborne pathogens, without compromising food safety. These natural compounds are often, but not exclusively, of plant origin and include polyphenol-rich and flavonoid-rich extracts, essential oils, and organic acids from different parts of commercially cultivated or wild plants. They may also be substances of microbial origin, such as antimicrobial peptides/bacteriocins, antimicrobial polysaccharides and pigments including melanin, organic acids and salts, and other microbial metabolites. They can also be derived from animals, as in the case of milk peptides or chitosan, which is a product of chitin isolated from crustaceans.   

These natural antimicrobials have different degrees of preservative potential and spectra of activity; they can be applied into a food mixture, a food surface, or used as antimicrobial films and coatings, or even as sanitation/biocontrol and biofilm preventions agents. However, the partial lack of food safety records, legislative framework, organoleptic restrictions, and high production costs limit their applications; therefore, there is a dire need to take measures to ameliorate these problems.

Given this context, the aim of this Special Issue is to collate research addressing all relevant aspects pertaining to the food preservation process.

Dr. Ioannis Giavasis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • natural antimicrobials
  • foodborne pathogens
  • bioprotection
  • food safety
  • food preservation

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 1924 KiB  
Article
Antimicrobial Activity and Mechanisms of Punicalagin against Vibrio parahaemolyticus
by Hongli Liu, Wenxiu Zhu, Yue Zou and Xiaodong Xia
Foods 2024, 13(9), 1366; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13091366 - 28 Apr 2024
Viewed by 298
Abstract
This study sought to explore the antimicrobial activity of punicalagin against V. parahaemolyticus and its potential modes of action. V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802 and RIMD 2210633Sm were exposed to punicalagin, and the energy production, membrane potential, and envelope permeability, as well as [...] Read more.
This study sought to explore the antimicrobial activity of punicalagin against V. parahaemolyticus and its potential modes of action. V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802 and RIMD 2210633Sm were exposed to punicalagin, and the energy production, membrane potential, and envelope permeability, as well as the interaction with cell biomolecules, were measured using a variety of fluorescent probes combined with electrophoresis and Raman spectroscopy. Punicalagin treatment disrupted the envelope integrity and induced a decrease in intracellular ATP and pH. The uptake of 1-N-phenyl-naphtylamine (NPN) demonstrated that punicalagin weakened the outer membrane. Punicalagin damaged the cytoplasmic membrane, as indicated by the membrane depolarization and the leakage of intracellular potassium ions, proteins, and nucleic acids. Electronic microscopy observation visualized the cell damage caused by punicalagin. Further, gel electrophoresis coupled with the Raman spectrum assay revealed that punicalagin affected the protein expression of V. parahaemolyticus, and there was no effect on the integrity of genomic DNA. Therefore, the cell envelope and proteins of V. parahaemolyticus were the assailable targets of punicalagin treatment. These findings suggested that punicalagin may be promising as a natural bacteriostatic agent to control the growth of V. parahaemolyticus. Full article
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