Essential Oils: The New Frontier to Prolong the Shelf Life of Fish Products

Mancuso M

Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IAMC), National Research Council (CNR), Section of Messina, Italy.

*Corresponding Author

Monique Mancuso,
Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IAMC),
National Research Council (CNR),
Section of Messina, Spianata S. Raineri 86, 98122,
Messina.
E-mail: monique.mancuso@iamc.cnr.it

Received: April 28, 2015; Published: April 29, 2015

Citation: Mancuso M (2015) Essential Oils: The New Frontier to Prolong the Shelf Life of Fish Products. Int J Marine Sci Ocean Technol. 2(1e), 1-2. doi: dx.doi.org/10.19070/2577-4395-150002e

Copyright: Mancuso M© 2015. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Key Words

Essential Oils; Packaging; Fish Products.

Introduction

Fish products, food highly perishable, should be stored and handled under appropriate hygienic conditions respecting the cold chain from production to packaging [8-10].

Microbial contamination reduces the shelf-life of food and increases the risk of foodborne illness [6]. Pseudomonas, Enterobacteriaceae and lactic acid bacteria are among the main causes of the deterioration of the meat, other contaminants may be Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli 0157: H7 and Yersinia enterolitica responsible for various diseases and even episodes of mortality. The development of pathogenic microorganisms, also impairs the organoleptic qualities.

For these reasons, recently scientists are trying to study, produce and test new methods of packaging. The antimicrobial packaging should be used in order to inhibit the growth and spread of pathogenic microorganisms and so prolong the shelf life of perishable produce and improve the safety of packaged products [11, 4].

Recently several essential oils were studied to develop antimicrobial plasticizers (i.e. essential oil of lemon, citrus, oreganon [2]. Essential oils are concentrated liquids of complex mixtures of volatile compounds and can be extracted from several plant organs.

Essential oils possess antioxidative and antimicrobial properties; the uses of essential oils have received increasing attention as the natural additives for the shelf-life extension of food products, due to the risk in using synthetic preservatives [7, 5]. The essential oils can be incorporated into packaging, in which they can provide multifunctions termed "active or smart packaging." Those essential oils are able to modify the matrix of packaging materials, thereby rendering the improved properties [1]. The antimicrobial packaging offers the possibility to increase the shelf life by reducing microbiological damage to the products during transport to the consumer. Also edible films, spiked with essential oils, have been developed to protect fresh food and processed by human pathogens, thus extending the shelf life [3].

References

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