ABSTRACT
Increasing awareness and understanding towards the importance of healthy as well as safe food has put pressure on food business operators to satisfy customers demand for minimally processed, highly nutritious, natural, and safe food. Despite of existing good manufacturing and hygiene practices, up-gradation of the food preservation methodologies, and advanced understanding of microorganisms; food safety and security are still a major concern both for the developed and developing countries. The reason for this could be the development of new pathogens and/or contaminants, development of resistance and cross-resistance against preservatives in use. Moreover, the health implications associated with the chemical preservatives has driven consumers demand for natural food with minimal preservatives. Considering the issues discussed, the trend is shifting from chemical preservatives and antibiotics to biopreservatives. Among different biopreservatives such as antimicrobial metabolites, fermentates, bioprotective cultures, and bacteriophages, applications of bacteriocins and/or bacteriocinogenic cultures in the food sector have attracted the researchers and food producers to ensure food safety and security. Mostly, the bacteriocins have narrow spectrum of activity and can be used in combinations or as a component in Hurdle technology. Bacteriocins can be used either in purified, semi-purified form or even the bacteriocinogenic strains can be used as starters but their safety needs to be ensured prior to application in food sector. Therefore, this chapter will focus on issues related to bacteriocin resistance and cross-resistance, safety aspects of bacteriocinogenic cultures, and regulatory considerations for bacteriocins and/or bacteriocinogenic strains.
