Abstract

Food safety is important to reduce food spoilage microorganisms and foodborne pathogens. However, food safety is challenging, as customers’ demand for natural preservatives is increasing. Essential oils (EOs) and their components (EOCs) are alternative antibacterial and antimycotic food additives. In this study, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 11 different EOCs against 13 food spoilage molds and yeasts were investigated via the microdilution method. Cinnamaldehyde (CA) revealed the lowest MIC for all tested strains and all EOCs (32.81–328.1 µg ml−1). However, CA is organoleptic and was therefore combined with other EOCs via the checkerboard method. Overall, 27 out of 91 combinations showed a synergistic effect, and both respective EOC concentrations could be reduced by maintaining MIC. Thereby, the combination with citral or citronellal showed promising results. The concentration-dependent effect of CA was studied in further detail on Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with CA causing delayed growth-kinetics and reduced total cell numbers. In addition, flow cytometric measurements combined with live–dead staining indicate the fungicidal effect of CA, due to decreasing total cell numbers and increasing relative amount of propidium iodide-positive cells. In this study, we demonstrated that CA is a potent candidate for the use as a natural preservative against food-relevant mold and yeasts showing fungistatic and fungicidal effects. Therefore, CA and EOC combinations with respective lower EOC concentrations reduce organoleptic reservations, which ease their application in the food industry.

Highlights

  • IntroductionAccepted: 12 October 2021In food manufacturing and storage, the fungal spoilage of products causes severe economic losses, impairment of food quality, reduction in nutrient availability and impacts food safety, due to the potential presence of mycotoxins [1,2,3]

  • Accepted: 12 October 2021In food manufacturing and storage, the fungal spoilage of products causes severe economic losses, impairment of food quality, reduction in nutrient availability and impacts food safety, due to the potential presence of mycotoxins [1,2,3]

  • We examine the effect of CA via growth curves and live–dead staining of S. cerevisiae via flow cytometric analysis to elucidate its antimycotic effect on a single-cell level

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Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 12 October 2021In food manufacturing and storage, the fungal spoilage of products causes severe economic losses, impairment of food quality, reduction in nutrient availability and impacts food safety, due to the potential presence of mycotoxins [1,2,3]. To increase the shelf-life of food, manifold antifungal, mainly chemical, preservatives are in use. Due to the development of resistances to such additives, and increasing consumer interest in both minimally processed food and reduction in chemical preservatives, the need for naturally derived additives to combat fungal decay is emerging [4,5]. Essential oils (EOs) and their components (EOCs) meet these criteria, which are aromatic and volatile liquids extracted from natural raw material of plants.

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