Development and antilisterial activity of PE-based biological preservative films incorporating plantaricin BM-1.

In recent years, bacteriocin, as a natural antimicrobial compound, provides enormous promise to be used in food safety preservation. In this work, the polyethylene(PE)-based biological preservative films incorporating plantaricin BM-1, a typical IIa bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus plantarum BM-1, were developed and characterized. The results showed that PE, low-density PE (LDPE) and high-density PE (HDPE) films soaked in plantaricin BM-1 solution had obvious antimicrobial activities against Listeria monocytogenes. And the volume of plantaricin BM-1 solution absorbed by PE, LDPE and HDPE films continued to increase and reached the maximum during exposure for up to 10, 6 and 16 h, respectively. And the maximum absorption volumes of plantaricin BM-1 solution had no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the PE, LDPE and HDPE films. When soaking in water, the release amount of plantaricin BM-1 from active PE, LDPE and HDPE films reached the maximum potency at 16, 12 and 20 h, respectively. And the maximum release amount of plantaricin BM-1 from PE and LDPE active films was dramatically more than the HDPE active film (P < 0.05). Moreover, the inhibitory effect of active films incorporating plantaricin BM-1 maintained stability for at least 120 days against L. monocytogenes stored at 25°C, which suggest a potential application of the biological preservative films on the control of foodborne pathogen L. monocytogenes.
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