Bacteriocins: A natural way to combat with pathogens

Preservation of foods by natural and microbiological methods may be a satisfactory approach solving economic losses due to microbial spoilage of raw materials and food products, to reduce the incidence of food borne illnesses, and to meet the food requirements of the growing world population. Since many people are concerned about the safety of chemical preservatives are questioned with regard to their safety, the potential applications of bacteriocins from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in food and health care have received increasing attention in recent years. Proteinaceous nature of bacteriocins implies a putative degradation in the gastro-intestinal tract of man, suggesting that some bacteriocins could be used as food preservatives such that bacteriocins have a wide antibacterial spectrum with potential applications in foods. Today nisin and pediocin have been used to inhibit some pathogens successfully and there are lots of research focusing on the finding new bacteriocins or new methods to use them in food systems.