Use of essential oils in order to prevent foodborne illnesses caused by pathogens in meat

Abstract

Although food industry has improved production techniques and slaughter hygiene, pathogens found in meat, such as Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp. and E. coli still cause a number of foodborne illness outbreaks yearly all over the world. The overuse of antibiotics and disinfectants in both veterinary and human medicine practice has led to phenomenon of multi-drugresistance of bacteria, which highlights the research needs on new antimicrobial agents. One of the alternatives is use of essential oils, which are aromatic oily liquids obtained from plant material by different methods. It has been proved that essential oils exhibit variable antibacterial activity, depending on the type of bacteria as well as on the chemical composition of essential oil being used. Essential oils (Eos) have antioxidant role, and inhibitory role not only to pathogens, but also to the spoilage microorganisms, which subsequently affects quality and extends meat shelf-life in order to produce safer and healthier product.

Iako je industrija hrane unapredila način i tehnologiju proizvodnje, kao i higijenu klanja, patogeni mikroorganizmi prenosivi hranom koji se mogu naći u mesu, kao što su Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp. i E. coli, odgovorni su za milione oboljenja svake godine. Prevelika upotreba antibiotika i dezinficijenasa, kako u veterinarskoj, tako i u humanoj medicini rezultiralo je fenomenom bakterijske rezistencije, zbog čega se javila potreba za novim antimikrobnim sredstvima. Jedna od mogućih alternativa je upotreba eteričnih ulja koja predstavljaju aromatične tečnosti uljane konzistencije, koje se različitim metodama, ekstrahuju iz skoro svih delova biljaka. Dokazano je da eterična ulja, u različitom stepenu, imaju antibakterijsku aktivnost koja zavisi od vrste bakterije kao i vrste i hemijskog sastava ulja koje se koristi. Eterična ulja imaju i antioksidativnu ulogu i inhibiraju rast patogenih, ali i mikroorganizama kvar a, utičući na taj način, na kvalitet i održivost mesa u cilju stvaranja bezbednijeg proizvoda.