O. vulgare extracts and essential oil from Portuguese origin are strong candidates to replace synthetic chemicals used by the industry.

No abstract

The findings indicate that the bioactive extracts of S. montana have strong potential for use as natural antimicrobials and antioxidants in the preservation of processed food.

Laurus nobilis L. is an aromatic plant frequently used as a spice in Mediterranean cookery and as a traditional medicine for the treatment of several infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to characterise the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of bay laurel essential oil (EO), ethanolic extract (EE) and hot/cold aqueous extract (AE). The major components detected in bay laurel EO were eucalyptol (27.2%), α-terpinenyl acetate (10.2%), linalool (8.4%), methyleugenol (5.4%), sabinene (4.0%) and carvacrol (3.2%). The EO exhibited strong antibacterial activity against all tested foodborne spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, whereas this activity was less pronounced or even nonexistent in the EE and AE. In contrast, EO exhibited low antioxidant activity compared to extracts (EX), and among the EX, the hot AE revealed the highest antioxidant ability. The results show that bay laurel EO and its EX have potential as natural alternatives to synthetic food preservatives, in order to enhance food safety and increase food shelf life.

Summary Two groups of farmed meagre (Argyrosomus regius) sausages were studied regarding quality changes and antioxidant capacity during a 98‐day storage experiment at 2 ± 2 °C. Control sausages contained 3.9% (w/w) of inner pea dietary fibre (IPDF) and the other group contained 0.9% (w/w) IPDF plus 3.0% (w/w) of antioxidant grape dietary fibre (AGDF). The control and AGDF meagre sausages presented a high nutritional value, given their low caloric content, fatty acid profile, amino acid composition and high DF content. Both products were remarkably stable over storage time. The AGDF had an effective antioxidant capacity, proven not only by the radical scavenging activity (90.0–91.0% vs. 82.1–85.4%) and reducing power (8.13–9.10 mg ascorbic acid equivalent g‐1 vs. 4.16–4.24 mg ascorbic acid equivalent g−1) measurements, but also by the lower thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) values (0.78–1.10 vs. 1.50–2.08 mg malonaldehyde kg−1) over storage time. AGDF seemed to present antimicrobial effect, since on the 63rd day (beginning of significant microbial growth), the control sausages had more than 3 log CFU g−1 and AGDF sausages much <3 log CFU g−1. The sensory assessment pointed to some loss of textural quality, more accentuated in the AGDF sausages.