Foodborne Pathogens Prevention and Sensory Attributes Enhancement in Processed Cheese via Flavoring with Plant Extracts

Abstract

Cheese contaminations with foodborne bacterial pathogens, and their health outbreaks, are serious worldwide problems that could happen from diverse sources during cheese production or storage. Plants, and their derivatives, were always regarded as the potential natural and safe antimicrobial alternatives for food preservation and improvement. The extracts from many plants, which are commonly used as spices and flavoring agents, were evaluated as antibacterial agents against serious foodborne pathogens, for example Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli O157:H7, using qualitative and quantitative assaying methods. Dairy-based media were also used for evaluating the practical application of plant extracts as antimicrobial agents. Most of the examined plant extracts exhibited remarkable antibacterial activity; the extracts of cinnamon, cloves, garden cress, and lemon grass were the most powerful, either in synthetic or in dairy-based media. Flavoring processed cheese with plant extracts resulted in the enhancement of cheese sensory attributes, for example odor, taste, color, and overall quality, especially in flavored samples with cinnamon, lemon grass, and oregano. It can be concluded that plant extracts are strongly recommended, as powerful and safe antibacterial and flavoring agents, for the preservation and sensory enhancement of processed cheese.

Use of thyme essential oil as an antibacterial agent in raw milk intended for the production of farm cheese

“…Divergent results have been reported in several studies, including those of Leuschner and Ielsch (2003), Hayaloglu and Fox (2008), Gammariello et al (2008), who all affirmed that TEO has been successfully incorporated into cheese and have been well accepted by consumers. Tayel et al (2015) also confirmed that addition of TEO to cheeses resulted in good sensory acceptance. Gouvea et al (2017) mentioned that general acceptance of cheeses with essential oils and plant extracts can be facilitated if consumers are already familiar with this type of products.…”

Multidrug Resistance in Zoonotic Pathogens: Are Medicinal Plants a Therapeuthic Alternative?

“…The overall prevalence of 4% was regarded as lower compared to data reported in 1999, but the isolates showed resistance to up to seven antimicrobials [56]. A significant higher prevalence with 41% (65/158) of samples found positive for Salmonella was reported in case of dog treats derived from pig ears and other animal parts randomly collected in USA [28].…”

“…Literature gathers a multitude of scientific studies that support the use of whole plant extracts in therapeutics, and the vast majority of researchers indicate medicinal plants as a viable alternative for the antimicrobials [13,24,[26][27][28][29].…”

“…The major active molecule groups were defined as: phenolics and polyphenols, terpenoids and essential oils, alkaloids, lectins and polypeptides, polyamines, isothiocyanates, thiosulfinates, and glucosides. Nevertheless, the extraction and purification costs act as limiting for the use of individual compounds [28].…”

Foodborne bacteria in dairy products: Detection by molecular techniques

“…Listeria is killed by pasteurization, and outbreaks of this bacterial strain have rarely been associated with pasteurized dairy products, including cheese (Koch et al, 2010). These foodborne bacteria are of concern for the dairy industry because they have been identified in different dairy products and have been implicated in outbreaks (Kousta et al, 2010;Yang et al, 2012;Claeys et al, 2013;Ricci et al, 2013;Robinson et al, 2014;Tayel et al, 2015;Pouillot et al, 2016).…”