Natural Food Preservation: Controlling Loss, Advancing Safety

Controlling food spoilage is critical not only to maintaining public health, but also to minimizing food loss, which in turn has broad impacts on the economy and the environment. Consumers today, concerned with both human and ecological health, are adamant that the elimination of risk for foodborne disease need not come at the cost of nutritional quality or ecological considerations. Moreover, a large factor towards the continued threat of foodborne illness is the fact that the responsible bacteria are increasingly resistant to conventional antibiotics. Considering that nature provides abundant antimicrobial compounds, it is salutary to assess the role that these compounds can play in fighting foodborne pathogens. As a result of these demands and considerations, natural antimicrobials are beginning to gain ground over their synthetic counterparts in industrial food safety processes. The success of these antimicrobial agents in individual settings has demonstrated that safe food doesnot have to mean highly processed or less sensorially satisfying food.  Natural Preservation: Safety, Losses and Protection will discuss the economic and ecological benefits of a food industry moving away from dependence on synthetic chemicals and preservatives, and illustrate the impact that the extension of shelf life for the minimization of food waste can have on food insecurity across the globe. Readers can expect an overview of safety that considers economic as well as ecological interests, and assesses each stage of the food processing chain for its role in improving the nutritional, physicochemical and sensory values of the product. This includes a discussion of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their secondary metabolic products, bacteriocins, and how their application to fermentation processes can expand the possibilities for natural approaches to food safety, with major implications for global health and ecology.  This volume demonstrates the integral role bio-protectors can play in production processes, promoting their potential while also outlining the necessity for appropriate laboratory, industrial and medical evaluations to ensure their efficacy and win their approval by regulatory bodies. The perspectives offered will be valuable to researchers, policymakers and industry professionals with investments in building a more sustainable and more equitable food system.