Bacteriophages and food safety: An updated overview

Food Sci Nutr. 2023 May 4;11(7):3621-3630. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3360. eCollection 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Despite significant advances in pathogen survival and food cleaning measures, foodborne diseases continue to be the main reason for hospitalization or other fatality globally. Conventional antibacterial techniques including pasteurization, pressurized preparation, radioactivity, as well as synthetic antiseptics could indeed decrease bacterial activity in nutrition to variable levels, despite their serious downsides like an elevated upfront outlay, the possibility of accessing malfunctions due to one corrosiveness, as well as an adverse effect upon those the foodstuffs' organoleptic properties and maybe their nutritional significance. Greatest significantly, these cleansing methods eliminate all contaminants, including numerous (often beneficial) bacteria found naturally in food. A huge amount of scientific publication that discussed the application of virus bioremediation to treat a multitude of pathogenic bacteria in meals spanning between prepared raw food to fresh fruit and vegetables although since initial idea through using retroviruses on meals. Furthermore, the quantity of widely viable bacteriophage-containing medicines licensed for use in health and safety purposes has continuously expanded. Bacteriophage bio-control, a leafy and ordinary technique that employs lytic bacteriophages extracted from the atmosphere to selectively target pathogenic bacteria and remove meaningfully decrease their stages meals, is one potential remedy that solves some of these difficulties. It has been suggested that applying bacteriophages to food is a unique method for avoiding bacterial development in vegetables. Because of their selectivity, security, stability, and use, bacteriophages are desirable. Phages have been utilized in post-harvest activities, either alone or in combination with antimicrobial drugs, since they are effective, strain-specific, informal to split and manipulate. In this review to ensure food safety, it may be viable to use retroviruses as a spontaneous treatment in the thread pollution of fresh picked fruits and vegetables, dairy, and convenience foods.

Keywords: bacteriophages; food safety; foodborne illness; phages.

Publication types

  • Review