Due to the success of the first edition, we are proud to launch a Volume II of Natural Compounds and Novel Sources of Antimicrobial Agents for Food Preservation and Biofilm Control

Biofilms are co-dependent communities of microorganisms surrounded by their own cellular extrudates. Biofilms colonize every niche, and are a prevalent issue in every scientific discipline, from medicine, to environmental bioremediation, to biotechnology. Within the food processing industry, the presence of biofilms can have serious consequences on consumer health, due to the risk of harboring foodborne pathogens, and human exposure to these biofilms results in diseases outbreaks. Moreover, biofilms can incur economic losses by reducing the shelf life of various food products, increasing product spoilage, impairing heat transfer processes during cooking, and increasing the corrosion rate of surfaces. Currently, biofilm research is a highly cross-disciplinary field, requiring the interaction of various microbiological subjects and poses a wide field that plays an important role in all areas of microbiology.

The consistent availability of safe, high quality food is essential in today’s society. However, due to increasing occurrences of foodborne disease outbreaks, there are growing concerns over food safety. Therefore, in this Research Topic, we aim to provide a platform to showcase current advances in research efforts to use natural compounds as novel sources of antimicrobial agents for food preservation and biofilm control. Particularly, this will focus on non-conventional methods such as utilization of bacteriocins, bacteriophages, essential oils, polyphenols, natural fibers, probiotic-derived disruptive enzymes, nano-emulsions and nanoparticles. These approaches progress our understanding of biofilm formation processes and biofilm physiology, and will shed light on the mechanisms of action involved in the application of these alternative strategies.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions of Original Research, Review, Mini-Review, Opinion and Hypothesis and Methods manuscripts, covering the application and mechanistic action of nonconventional methods for food preservation and biofilm control, e.g. bacteriocins, bacteriophages, essential oils, polyphenols, fibers, probiotic-derived enzymes, nano emulsions and nanoparticles. Including:

• The physiological, genetic and biochemical changes observed during application of the aforementioned unconventional biofilm controllers;

• The observed impact of unconventional controllers on biofilm development, dispersion, virulence, pathogenesis and bacterial signaling within the biofilm;

• The potential impacts of unconventional controllers on current food preservative, packaging and biotechnology and food safety management systems;

• The implications of unconventional controllers on food safety, food spoilage and quality;

• The potential impacts, toxicology and side effects of unconventional controllers on subjects ingesting/absorbing them, e.g. humans, animals, plants.

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Frontiers in Microbiology

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