Action des cultures protectrices : cas des germes lactiques sur la flore alimentaire indésirable

Abstract

Protective action of cultures: the case of lactic bacteria against undesirable food flora. Protective strains have been used for centuries in the fermentation of a variety of food. The preservative ability of these strains in food is attributed to the production of antimicrobial metabolites including organic acids and bacteriocins. But to secure an extension of shelf life and better food safety, the multiple antimicrobial barriers approach is required. This approach typically uses the principal hurdles temperature (higher or lower), water activity (Aw), pH, redox potentiel (Eh), chemical preservatives, vacuum packaging, modified atmosphere, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and UV, as additional barriers to protective cultures and/or antimicrobial compounds. This paper reviews the recent literature describing the protective cultures and different ways they use to suppress unwanted flora. Are also briefly presented, classification, biosynthesis, mechanism of action of bacteriocins produced by these cultures and finally the protective benefit of using additional barriers to booster protective cultures and/or their bacteriocins.

Keywords

• Protective cultures
• bacteriocins
• biopreservation
• hurdle technology