ABSTRACT
This chapter describes biopreservation has received increasing attention, since it is a natural way for controlling the shelf life and safety of meat and meat products. Biopreservation refers to the extended shelf life and improvement of the microbial safety of food products using their natural microflora or their metabolites. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are the main tool for biopreservation of meat and meat products since they comprise the normal flora of these goods and because of their ability to provide metabolic products with antimicrobial effect against spoilage and pathogenic bacteria as bacteriocins. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized peptides or small proteins with antimicrobial activity, produced by bacteria. New bioprotective cultures for food fermentation purposes can be selected by means of three steps: isolation and selection of bacteriocinogenic LAB from endogenous microbiota, assessment of antibiotic resistance and production of biogenic amines, and evaluation of technological features, such as acidification profile, proteolytic and lipolytic activities.
