Combination of Essential Oil, and Food Additives

Abstract

In recent years, with the general attention of consumers to chemical synthetic preservatives, people have made a lot of investigation on natural botanical preservatives. In recent years, as consumers pay more and more attention to food safety, people have made a lot of investigations on natural botanical preservatives. Plant essential oils have been shown to have significant antibacterial and antioxidant activities. However, in general, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of essential oil in food matrix is higher than the theoretical value obtained under laboratory conditions. Therefore, a higher concentration of essential oil is needed in order to achieve better fresh-keeping effect in food system. It is gratifying that a large number of studies have shown that different kinds of essential oils combined with other food additives can have a synergistic bacteriostatic effect. This may be an economical and healthy food preservation technology. Therefore, this chapter mainly summarized the main factors affecting the antibacterial activity of essential oils in the food system, focusing on the synergistic bacteriostatic effect of different active components of essential oils, the synergistic bacteriostatic effect of essential oils and food additives and the synergistic bacteriostatic effect of essential oils and antibiotics. This chapter will provide a new strategy for promoting the application of essential oil as food additive in food preservation.