Trends and globalized trade in fresh produce consumption is a challenge and an opportunity to the agri-food sector. An urgent pursuit to develop new efficient antimicrobial agents that show effectiveness across the distribution chain and food manufacturing units have flourished. Among the many strategies proposed for preserving minimally processed fruits and vegetables, bio-preservation is a promising tool. Therefore, the use of lactic acid bacteria and its metabolites (organic acids, hydrogen peroxide, antifungal peptides, and bacteriocins) appeal much interest during recent years. The adjuvant production of lactic acid during growth bestows LAB with notable selective advantages in the diverse ecological niches. Hence, their potential as preservatives in many food matrices appears to be enormous. Notably, authorized regulatory agencies are well for widespread commercial use, the agents remain small. Food bio-preservation is a novel method of preservation that is benignly an ecological approach with natural microflora and non-toxic biologically active compounds. In this review, we delineate several aspects of lactic acid bacteria, antimicrobial potential of potent metabolites, summarize the mechanisms of antimicrobial action and finally,recent potential applications in the curtailment of food borne pathogens.

Osmo-dried apple pops and rings were prepared from “Golden Delicious” apples. The technology has been optimized for osmo-dried apple pops with a diameter of 28 mm and apple rings with a thickness of 0.5 cm. In case of apple pops drying time of eight hour for sugar syrup and seven hours for honey syrup at 70oB osmotic sugar syrup at 50oC was optimized. The drying time of five hours has been optimized for osmo-dried apple rings with sugar and four hours for osmo-dried rings with honey. Honey osmo-dried apple pops and rings rated better in quality and sensory characteristics and with less water activity. The developed technology can be explored commercially at an industrial level for the production of quality osmo dried apple pops or apple rings.

Caffeine content in kombucha is very much lower than that of normal tea infusion. Though this stimulant plays an important role in kombucha fermentation as it regulates the starter or SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeasts) to produce the cellulose network on broth to accelerate the fermentation process. This research was designed to investigate the aftermath of caffeine and related tea alkaloids in kombucha through preliminary biochemical tests and chromatographic analysis where both the broth (beverage) and SCOBY (the cellulose layer) were taken as individual samples. The beverage clearly revealed negative in all the tests where the SCOBY extract showed richness in alkaloid content. Moreover, GC-MS analysis revealed presence of caffeine (8.7%); guanosine (12.01%), the precursor of caffeine; thymine (4.08%); and some undesirable components which has confirmed that SCOBY has an ability to capture a huge amount of stimulants from tea during fermentation.

Edible coating prepared with the mixer of soybean chunk and wheat grass powder were applied in cricket ball variety of sapota with the end goal of preserving its quality. Preparation of coating was done by measuring the soybean chunks extracts, accordingly based on the treatments i.e. 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80ml/L and mixing it with 1 gm of wheat grass powder which was constant for all the treatments was carried out. Soybean being rich in protein and wheat grass powder, a good source of antioxidants could be used as an alternative for synthetic plastic in food applications which can also be consumed along with the products, thereby, contributing to the reduction of environmental pollution. The post-harvest losses during storage of sapota fruit (variety cricket ball) could be effectively reduced with the application of edible coating up to a period of 12 days under ambient storage conditions. The treatment combination of soyabean chunk extract of 60gm/L with wheat grass powder of 1% (T4) gave the best result in terms of lowest spoilage percentage and physiological loss in weight. Since, sapota fruit is highly perishable and could only be stored for a period of maximum 3-4 days after ripening, therefore extending the storage period up to 12 days could be an effective alternative to get regulated market supply thus, reducing the market glut.