摘要

A tremendous effort has been made over the last decade to develop and test films with antimicrobial properties to improve food safety and shelf life. This review catalogues and analyses the outcome of these research efforts. The bacteriocin nisin was the antimicrobial most commonly incorporated into films, followed by food-grade acids and salts, chitosan, plant extracts, and the enzymes lysozyme and lactoperoxidase. The methodologies for measuring antimicrobial activity of both edible and inedible films varied considerably among the studies. Results, defined as the difference in the log(10) colony-forming unit (CFU) of a test organism exposed to a control film and the log(10) CFU of the organism exposed to the antimicrobial film, ranged from 0 to 9 for many of the antimicrobials tested. Even for antimicrobials such as nisin, chitosan or antimicrobial acids with a 'long' history of studying their incorporation into antimicrobial films, the majority of results centred around 2 log(10) reductions. The results suggest that antimicrobial films still face limitations and are perhaps still best viewed as part of a hurdle strategy to provide safe foods.

  • 出版日期2007-8