Abstract
To prevent foodborne diseases and extend shelf-life, antimicrobial agents may be used in food to inhibit the growth of undesired microorganisms. In addition to the prevention of foodborne diseases, another huge concern of our time is the recovery of agri-food byproducts. In compliance with these challenges, the aim of this work was to more deeply investigate the antimicrobial activity of extracts derived from fermented tomato, melon, and carrot byproducts, previously studied. All the fermented extracts had antimicrobial activity both in vitro and in foodstuff, showing even higher activity than commercial preservatives, tested for comparison against spoilage microorganisms and foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella spp., L. monocytogenes, and B. cereus. These promising results highlight an unstudied aspect for the production of innovative natural preservatives, exploitable to improve the safety and shelf-life of various categories of foodstuff.
Highlights
Foodborne diseases have been an important health problem for all populations since the beginning of humanity
The minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of fermented tomato, melon, and carrot byproduct extracts, which is the lowest concentration of extract responsible for the death of inoculated cells, was evaluated by considering four concentrations of the target microorganisms (Table 1)
From the different reports available in literature, it is recognized that plants, as well as microorganisms, can be sources of antimicrobial compounds which can be applied for food preservation
Summary
Foodborne diseases have been an important health problem for all populations since the beginning of humanity. Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus [2,3] Nonpathogenic microorganisms, such as Pseudomonas spp., can be considered a serious problem because they can reduce the quality of contaminated food products [4]. In recent years, there has been a growing increase in research concerning the investigation of antimicrobials from different natural sources. Natural antimicrobials can be obtained from different sources such as plants [8,9,10], animals, bacteria, algae, and fungi [11,12]; considering the wide biodiversity of this biological heritage, there is still much research to be done [6,13]. Extracts obtained from different fruit and vegetable byproducts such as peels, husks, seeds, or leaves were tested against various foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella spp., L. monocytogenes, E. coli, S. aureus, and B
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