Exploiting the synergism among physical and chemical processes for improving food safety

• Published in: Current opinion in food science Vol. 30; pp. 14 - 20
• Main Authors: Berdejo, Daniel, Pagán, Elisa, García-Gonzalo, Diego, Pagán, Rafael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2019
• Subjects: anti-infective agents; food quality; food safety; heat treatment; pathogens; synergism
• ISSN: 2214-7993; 2214-8000
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cofs.2018.08.004

[Display omitted] •Synergisms among food preservation processes improve food safety.•Mild heat increase the lethal effects of non-thermal technologies.•EOs improve lethality of both thermal and non-thermal treatments.•Promising synergisms are obtained by the interaction of chemical constituents. This article provides an overview of recent published information on the subject of synergistic lethal effects that emerge from the combination of physical and/or chemical processes applied to enhance food safety. Despite important recent advances in non-thermal technologies, the greatest synergistic lethal effects emerge from combining them with traditional, relatively mild heat treatments. The combined application of antimicrobials has shown that their main constituents interact effectively, and great synergistic effects have been described with the capacity of either inhibiting or inactivating pathogens. Moreover, natural antimicrobials are more effective when pathogens are previously damaged sublethally by the application of physical technologies. Such combinations allow for a considerable reduction of treatment intensity and costs, along with a noticeable improvement in food quality and safety.