Biopreservation

Biopreservation is the use of natural or controlled microbiota, or the antimicrobial compounds they produce, to preserve food and extend its shelf life. The practice centers on lactic acid bacteria, which inhibit food spoilage microbes, and has been used since ancient times, at first without any scientific understanding and later on an increasingly rigorous scientific footing. It works chiefly by producing organic acids that lower a food's pH and by generating other antimicrobial compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, and is regarded as a benign, ecological approach to preservation that has drawn growing attention.