Biopreservatives from yeasts with antimicrobial activity against common food, agricultural produce and beverage spoilage organisms

Abstract

There are safety concerns regarding the use of chemical food preservatives for reducing microbial contamination in processed foods and post-harvest agricultural produce, and these concerns require a bioprospecting approach. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts produce antimicrobial compounds, but these compounds are not being produced nor used on a large scale due to inadequate development and understanding of process engineering systems that are required for their production. This chapter focuses on bioprospecting biopreservative potential of yeasts. A mini review on the current potential of yeasts and their extracellular compounds as biopreservatives was conducted. In an attempt to address the gaps found in current literature, and to open windows for future research on biopreservatives, a model study of growth and antimicrobial compound production kinetics from Candida pyralidae KU736785 was carried out. Results showed the potential of C. pyralidae as post-harvest biocontrol agent and as producers of biopreservation compounds. There was a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity shown against Botrytis cinerae, Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Candida guilliermondii by the strain of C. pyralidae studied. Furthermore, a new concept for quantification of biopreservation activity was also developed to describe the efficacy of the crude biopreservatives