Natural Food Preservatives

About

Commercial food products are typically loaded with preservatives to allow them to remain fresh during the long span between the time of manufacture and the time the customer finishes using it. Although the preservatives do extend the longevity of the products and help keep them free from bacteria, yeast and mold. the preservatives themselves are often unhealthy. Most of the preservatives used in food industries are synthetic chemicals named benzoates, sorbates and parabens. These synthetic preservatives have long health implications like cancer when consumed on a daily basis. This bring us to think about the natural preservatives for food products. Encap Biotech offers clean label microencapsulated natural preservatives which could be customized as broad-spectrum antimicrobials with possibly antioxidant activity. Our natural preservative solutions are a group of agents that shows its antimicrobial activity against bacteria, yeast or mold. Clean label microencapsulated antimicrobials are opening up new food development possibilities. Our technology is mainly performed by mixing different biopolymers and antimicrobials together. The ratio of the antimicrobials to biopolymers (wall material) will affect the anti-oxidative stability of an encapsulated antimicrobials. EnCap Biotech has clean label, microencapsulated mixture of antimicrobials such as grapefruit extract, oregano, cinnamon, rosemary, lemon, orange, peppermint, thyme, turmeric, ginger, citronella, mint etc. with bacteriocin (nisin, natamycin) and food acids (ascorbic acid, citric acid) (Huq et al., 2015; Turgis et al., 2012, Takala et al., 2011, Toro-Sa ́nchez et al., 2010). We have done some preliminary antimicrobials test with our formulation. We have tested our formulation against Listeria innocua for ready to eat meat products and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for Beverage products during storage. References: 1. Huq, T., Vu, K. D., Riedl, B., Bouchard, J. and Lacroix, M., (2015). Synergistic effect of gamma (γ)-irradiation and microencapsulated antimicrobials against Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat (RTE) meat. Food Microbiology, 46: 507-514 1. Turgis, M., Vu, K.D., Dupont, C. and Lacroix, M., (2012). Combined antimicrobial effect of essential oils and bacteriocins against foodborne pathogens and food spoilage bacteria. Food Research International 48: 696–702 2. Takala, P. N., Vu, K.D., Salmieri, S. and Lacroix, M., (2011). Effect of Antimicrobial Coatings on the Radiosensitization of Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes in Fresh Broccoli. Journal of Food Protection,74(7), 2011, 1065–1069. 3. Toro-Sa ́nchez, C.L.D., Ayala-Zavala, J.F., Machi, L., Santacruz, H., Villegas-Ochoa, M. A., Alvarez-Parrilla, E., Gonza ́lez-Aguilar, G.A., Del Toro-Sa ́nchez, C.L., Ayala-Zavala, J.F., Machi, J., Santacruz, H., Villegas-Ochoa, M.A., Alvarez-Parrilla, E., Gonza ́lez-Aguilar, G.A., (2010). Controlled release of antifungal volatiles of thyme essential oil from -cyclodextrin capsules. Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry,67:431–441