Bacteriocins, their role in developing natural products

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Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria have an essential role in the majority of food fermentations, and many different strains are used as starter cultures for meat, dairy, vegetable and bakery products. Lactic acid bacteria have long been known to produce antimicrobial proteins called bacteriocins. There are two major classes of bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria, those bacteriocins (e.g. lactacin B and F, and lactocin 27) that are cidal to a narrow range of target organisms, usually closely related to the producer organisms, and those bacteriocins (e.g. nisin, pediocin A, and pediocin PA‐1) that inhibit a broad spectrum of (gram‐positive) organisms. The latter include many species or strains of spoilage and pathogenic bacteria associated with food, such as Listeria monocytogenes, and Clostridium botulinum. Studies on several bacteriocins have indicated that they are nontoxic and nonimmunogenic. Due to these desirable characteristics bacteriocins have great potential as natural preservatives in various (fermented) food products (cheeses, cheese spreads, creams). The effectiveness of the bacteriocins nisin and pediocin PA‐1 in food systems has been studied and is discussed in this paper.