For centuries man has treated food to prolong its edible life, and nowadays both traditional and modern preservatives are used widely to ensure the satisfactory maintenance of quality and safety of foods. There continues to be increased public concern about the use of food additives, including preservatives, resulting from a perception that some of them may have deleterious effects on health. However, as eating habits have changed with an emphasis on what has been popularly termed a `healthy diet', there is at the same time a concern that reduction in preservative usage could lead to loss of safety and protection from food poisoning. While some preservatives are coming under increasing regulatory pressure others, particularly more natural ones, are receiving increased attention and gaining in importance and acceptability. This book supports the continued safe and effective use of preservatives within these current constraints. It therefore gives detailed information on the practical use of the major antimicrobial preservatives. Uniquely, it couples this with current understanding of their modes of action, at the levels of cellular physiology and biochemistry, in such a way as to provide a sound scientific basis for their efficacy. Such an approach also encourages the future logical development and use of preservatives.

Safety, quality, and prolonged shelf life of food products are the three most important aspects of the food industry. To ensure a satisfactory scale, both traditional and modern preservatives are widely used. However, as eating habits have upgraded with a focus on what is popularly termed "a healthy diet," there has been a growing demand for food with natural additives over synthetic ingredients. As a result, there have been major developments in the field of food preservation, which are presented in this book. The book provides detailed information on the range of natural food preservatives with their applications in different product sectors. It delves into microbiological food spoilage and discusses natural food preservatives as well as natural antioxidants and antimicrobials as food ingredients. It reviews prevalent preservation technologies, the chemistry behind them, and new nonconventional preservatives. It focuses on innovative technologies, including biological antimicrobial systems such as LABs or their metabolites, bacteriophages, and bacteriophage-encoded enzymes. It provides knowledge about preservatives, such as bacteriocins and ε-polylysine, as well as their usage in achieving the right balance of safety, quality, and shelf-life for specific products. The book is a collection of the research and experiences of an international team of experts and is a valuable tool for all those who are related to the advancements and production of safe and healthy foods. It is a significant reference book for professionals who teach food microbiology courses, conduct research and epidemiologic investigations, analyze food samples, and craft food safety policies.

Chemistry of Food Additives and Preservatives Food additives are chemicals or ingredients that are added to food during processing to improve quality, flavour, appearance or nutritional value, or to prevent chemical or microbial spoilage. The most common types of additives are preservatives, colourants, sweeteners, flavourings, emulsifiers, thickeners and stabilisers. Adding new ingredients to a food has an effect upon its chemistry and structure as well as its sensory characteristics. Additives are usually characterised by where they come from (for example, whether they are natural or synthetic), by their purpose (such as improving shelf life) and the risks associated with them (such as their toxicity, and any side effects upon the consumer). Although in recent years the trend in consumer marketing has been to trumpet a lack of additives and preservatives, with ‘artificial ingredients’ commonly seen in a negative light, there nevertheless remains a wide variety of additives and preservatives that are crucial both to producers and consumers, without which the quality of the food would suffer. Chemistry of Food Additives and Preservatives is an up-to-date reference guide to the wide range of different types of additives used in the food industry today. It looks at the processes involved in adding preservatives and additives to foods, and the mechanisms and methods used. The book provides full details about the chemistry of each major class of food additive, showing the reader not just what kind of additives are used and what their functions are, but also how they work, and how they may have multiple functionalities. This book also covers numerous new additives currently being introduced, how the quality of these is ascertained, and how consumer safety is ensured. Chemistry of Food Additives and Preservatives is an ideal reference for food chemists, food safety specialists and agencies, food processors who are working with additives and preservatives, and food regulators and policy makers. Written in an accessible style and covering a broad range of food additives and preservatives, the book offers an in-depth analysis of the chemical interactions of food additives and preservatives with the natural composition of the foods to which they are added. It is a unique and ground-breaking treatment of a topic vital to both the food industry and the researcher.

NONTHERMAL FOOD PROCESSING SAFETY AND PRESERVATION This book is essential for learning how biological processes are translated into commercial products and services under food biotechnology and will significantly broaden users’ scope, capabilities, and application of bioprocess engineering, food processes, biochemical engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and microbiology. Food engineering involves a variety of processes and technologies that deal with the construction, design, operations, and associated engineering principles to produce valuable edible goods and byproducts. There is a dearth of published cutting-edge high-quality original studies in the engineering and science of all types of processing technologies, from the beginning of the food supply chain to the consumer’s dinner table. This book seeks to address multidisciplinary experimental and theoretical discoveries that have the potential to improve process efficiency, improve product quality, and extend the shelf-life of fresh and processed food and associated industries. This book is for the students and researchers who are interested in learning how biological processes are translated into commercial products and services with food biotechnology.