Nisin; a Food Preservative Helps Improve Food Quality and Reduce Loss of Nutrients

 

Nisin is a polycyclic antibacterial peptide produced by a group of Gram-positive bacteria that belongs to Streptococcus and Lactococcus species. Nisin is classified as a Type A (I) antibiotic that is synthesized from mRNA and the translated peptide contains several unusual amino acids due to post-translational modifications. Nisin is a natural, antibacterial, and toxicologically safe preservative. It is usually available as yellowish or greyish white powder. Nisin shows broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against foodborne bacteria, such as Listeria monocytogenes.

Nisin is widely used in medicines, cosmetics, beverages, canned food products, fruit juices, fast food, plant proteins, milk and meat products, dairy products, aquatic products, and health care products. Moreover, nisin improves food quality, reduces damage to nutrients, decreases the time required for sterilization, reduce temperature during food sterilization, and prolongs storage duration. Furthermore, it is used as a bio-preservative for biomedical application such as prevention of dental caries and anti-cancer.

It is used as bio-preservative in dairy products (such as flour-based products, pasteurized soups, egg products, processed cheese, natural cheese, and yoghurt), canned food such as (asparagus, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, okra, and peas), meat products (such as salad dressings, seafood, and sausages), and alcoholic beverages (such as wine and beer). Recent applications of nisin include its use as a preservative in high moisture, hot baked flour products and pasteurized liquid egg. This has increased the demand for natural preservatives such as nisin.

Moreover, Nisin is a potential alternative for sodium nitrate, as sodium nitrate increases the risk of cancer. Therefore, with the increasing prevalence of cancer, the demand for nisin is also increasing. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2020, approximately 1,806,590 new cancer cases were expected to be diagnosed in the United States and around 606,520 people were expected to die from the disease. However, the production cost of nisin is higher than synthetic preservatives, which in turn is expected to hamper the demand for nisin.