Food additives have been shown to help regulate or prevent the spread of microbes during food manufacturing. Phloxine B, nisin, and sorbic acid were tested to see whether they had a synergistic impact on the inactivation of Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. The combination of phloxine B and nisin had a synergistic interaction (FICI: 0.25-0.50) against B. cereus, where it demonstrated an additive effect among the three combinations examined (FICI: 0.91). A time-kill test was used in both cases to verify that a food additive combination has synergistic antibacterial action against B. cereus and S. aureus. B. cereus had a 50% reduction in bacterial colony count after 10 h, whereas S. aureus had a 60% reduction after 6 h of their independent impacts after 48 h. Phloxine B, nisin, and sorbic acid demonstrated synergistic antibacterial action and might be used as a source of safe and potent antibacterial agents in the pharmaceutical and food industries.
Keywords: antimicrobial activity; cytotoxic activity; nisin; phloxine B; sorbic acid; synergistic effect.
© 2021 The Authors. Food Science & Nutrition published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.