BIOCONTROL

Pre-washed, fresh-cut, minimally processed fruits and vegetables are a fast growing market; however, an efficient, safe and easily applicable method to control microbial contamination on fresh produce is lacking. The overall research objective is to establish the natural antimicrobial reuterin produced from glycerol by the foodgrade bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri as a novel method to reduce bacterial load on fresh produce.

Pre-washed, fresh-cut, minimally processed (MP) fruits and vegetables are a fast growing market answering the consumer’s demand for convenient, ready-to-use food products. Problems arising with minimal processing are short shelf life and high product loss due to microbial spoilage, and intoxication caused by several pathogens. So far, an efficient, safe and easily applicable method to control microbial contamination on fresh produce is lacking. Reuterin is a potent antimicrobial compounds natural produced from glycerol bioconversion by the food-grade bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri. For this project we hypothesize that reuterin can efficiently reduce the microbial load, including pathogens, of vegetables, leading to shelf life extension, decreased spoilage and enhanced safety of MP vegetable products. The project is organized with four work-packages: 

1. Establish efficient production processes applicable to industry for the production of crude and enriched reuterin bioingredients for disinfection and food biopreservation.
   
2. Define the antimicrobial activity spectrum of reuterin bioingredients (crude and enriched) against a broad range of common spoilers and pathogens of vegetables in vitro.
   
3. Investigate the antimicrobial properties of crude and enriched reuterin bioingredients when applied to the preparation and conservation of MP vegetable produce
   
4. Characterize transformation products of reuterin and ensure their presence in safe levels in treated end products.
   

This project will lead to a novel, efficient and natural method using reuterin for the disinfection and biological control for MP vegetable products. This project will set the ground for further applications of reuterin to the disinfection and biopreservation of different food products.