Handbook of Natural
Antimicrobials for Food
Safety and Quality

The protection of microbiological safety and keeping quality of foods for human consumption
is essential for the assurance of a nutritious and sustainable food supply.
Excepting only those foods processed so as to render them microbiologically sterile,
thereby free of all viable microorganisms, following final packaging, any food may
be subject to loss of microbiological safety and/or microbiologically driven spoilage
if requisite conditions for microbial growth and metabolism of food components are
met for contaminating microbes. It is the inhibition of this microbial growth and consumption/
decomposition of constituents of the food (i.e., amino acids from proteins,
utilizable carbohydrates, lipids, etc.) that provides cause for food processors and
food microbiologists to investigate the application of differing antimicrobial compounds
in various foods. Food antimicrobials are chemicals that exert a growthinhibiting
effect, and in some cases may possess microbicidal activity, though this
is not typically observed in food products. As opposed to the host of antibiotics that
are utilized in the United States and throughout the world to combat infectious pathogens
in food-yielding animals, this text will explore the use of various types of antimicrobials
that are approved by relevant food manufacture/process-regulating agencies
(e.g., U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Food
Safety and Inspection Service) for direct or indirect application in the manufacture
of foods for human consumption.