Spices to eliminate foodborne diseases and improve food safety?
Herbs and spices like oregano, thyme, cinnamon and clove do more than add pleasing flavors and aromas to familiar foods, according to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The oils from these plants, or compounds extracted from those oils, pack a powerful, antimicrobial punch strong enough to help quell such foodborne pathogens as Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli).
ARS chemist Mendel Friedman first discovered the bacteria destroying properties of such spices several years ago and now some of the compounds that Friedman and co-investigators determined were the strongest combatants of foodborne diseases are being tapped for new research focused on food safety.
For example, scientists at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in California are evaluating the highest-ranking botanical bactericides as potential ingredients in what are known as edible films. A thin, pliable, edible film for the future might be made of puréed spinach spiked with carvacrol, the compound responsible for oregano’s ranking as a top fighter of E. coli in the Friedman study.
The scientists want to establish whether adding small squares of carvacrol-enhanced spinach purée film to bags of chilled, ready-to-eat spinach leaves would help protect this salad green against E. coli.
Dr Friedman is also exploring other new uses of the top-rated botanicals from the earlier study. That investigation, which he conducted with technician Philip R. Henika and research leader Robert E. Mandrell at Albany, was the most extensive of its kind at the time it was published. Also notable was the common basis of comparison, which the team established by inventing new methods to prepare and test all of the samples. For even more consistency, the scientists used the same bacterial strains-from the same suppliers-throughout the investigation.
Tomato and apple-based edible films are also being researched, with carvacrol playing a key role in the process of establishing the ability to improve food safety.
Herbal-Active and HerBev are already on the market as examples of herb extracts being used effectively as powerful and broad spectrum anti-microbials. HerBev is rolling out in a number of drinks including the range under The Wiggles brand. Major beverage companies are now screening it with their extended shelf life tests and it is performing well wherever it is used appropriately.
Herbal-Active has found a wide range of applications including its use as an ingredient in brines for red and white meats, as a dip for any fresh produce and in fruit purees. It is also being used by several cosmetic companies and both an aromatic and an anti-microbial.
Between them, these two herbal blends which are labeled on foods as ‘natural flavours’ are proving effective replacements for benzoates, sorbates, metabisulphites and parabens.