Applications of protective cultures, bacteriocins and bacteriophages in fresh seafood and seafood products

Microbial seafood-borne disease represents 10 to 20% of the total food-borne outbreaks. Most of them are from bacterial origin and involve seafood products that have been contaminated by pathogenic Vibrio, Listeria monocytogenes and histaminogen bacteria. On the other hand, seafood products are very sensitive to the development of spoiling bacteria producing off-odours. Pathogenic and spoiling microflora are not always reduced or limited by the processing steps that are currently used in these foodstuffs, and the interest for alternative techniques such as bioprotection to improve quality and safety of seafood has increased in the last years. Among the microbial flora of lightly preserved seafood products, lactic acid bacteria usually become dominant during the storage under vacuum or modified atmosphere. In some cases these bacteria are responsible for spoilage but some of them have demonstrated potential for pathogenic or spoiling microflora inhibition. Those bacteria as far as some bacteriocins have been tested, mainly for the control of Listeria monocytogenes in cold smoked salmon and in a lesser extend in other products to enhance sensory shelf-life. Many successful results have been obtained at the laboratory scale, nevertheless, the application in seafood industry is still limited.