Lactic acid bacteria: From food preservation to active packaging

Abstract

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have acted in food fermentations through the ages due to their safety and resilience to specific harsh conditions of high salinity or low pH present in food and gut where they live. Their interaction with human technological development started in food but goes beyond, as some LAB contribute to the health of humans and animals as probiotics. The stress tolerance of LAB also makes them excellent, robust industrial microorganisms for production of lactic acid and other chemicals. The lactic acid market has had a high growth rate in the last decade mainly due to expansion of poly-lactide production. Poly-lactides are biocompatible, thermostable and biodegradable polymers of lactic acid, suitable for use in food packaging or in medicine, as scaffolds, implants or delivery systems. The ability of LAB to grow on complex waste substrates but efficiently produce selected isomers of lactic acid has positioned them at the core of bio-based packaging production, and this field is expected to grow in the future. Therefore, LAB are important for food - for preservation, flavour and packaging, but also beyond food - as probiotics, paraprobiotics and postbiotics. Recent trends in these fields of LAB application are analysed in this work.