The food industry produces highly perishable products. Food spoilage represents a severe problem for food manufacturers. Therefore, it is important to identify effective preservation solutions to prevent food spoilage. Ocins (e.g., bacteriocins, lactocins, and enterocins) are antibacterial proteins synthesized by bacteria that destroy or suppress the growth of related or unrelated bacterial strains. Ocins represent a promising strategy for food preservation, because of their antagonist effects toward food spoilage microorganisms, high potency, and low toxicity. Additionally, they can be bioengineered. The most common and commercially available ocins are nisin, plantaracin, sakacin P, and pediocin. Several ocins have been characterized and studied biochemically and genetically; however, their structure-function relationship, biosynthesis, and mechanism of action are not understood. This narrative review focuses primarily on ocins and their relevance to the food industry to help prevent food spoilage. In particular, the applications and limitations of ocins in the food industry are highlighted.

An antimicrobial peptide [Bacillus antimicrobial peptide (BAMP)] produced by Bacillus paralicheniformis was isolated from the Indian traditional fermented food and characterized. The antimicrobial peptide BAMP showed many unique features such as thermostability (4.0–125°C), pH tolerance (pH 2.0–9.0), and resistance to physiological enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, proteinase K, protease, and catalase), and food-grade metal salts do not inhibit the activity. The broad spectrum of BAMP (antimicrobial activity) makes it a suitable candidate for food preservation as well as antimicrobial therapy. BAMP was found to exhibit a bacteriostatic effect on Salmonella typhi and controls the viability of Listeria monocytogenes in chicken meat efficiently. BAMP was found to establish eubiosis, as it is not antagonistic to Lactobacillus. Its non-hemolytic nature makes it suitable for therapy. Various genome prediction tools were adopted and applied to understand their localization, gene arrangement, and type of antimicrobials. Founded on its superior functional attributes, BAMP is a potent new-generation antimicrobial peptide.

The generation of a zone of inhibition on a solid substrate indicates the bioactivity of antimicrobial peptides such as bacteriocin and enterocin. The indicator strain plays a significant role in bacteriocin assays. Other characteristics of bacteriocins, such as their dispersal ability and the different zymogram components, also affect bacteriocin assays. However, universal well diffusion assays for antimicrobials, irrespective of their ability to diffuse (bacteriocin and enterocin), do not exist. The ability of different zymography components to generate non-specific activities have rarely been explored in the literature. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the impact of major factors (diffusion and rate of diffusion) in a solid substrate bioassay, and to document the adverse effects of sodium dodecyl sulfate in zymograms used to estimate the approximate molecular weight of bacteriocins.